Editing Teleprompter (section)

==Modern design==

===Television===
[[File:Teleprompter 3716.JPG|thumb|Studio camera with Autoscript teleprompter]]
Modern teleprompters for news programs consist of a [[personal computer]], connected to [[video monitor]]s on each [[professional video camera]]. In certain systems, the PC connects to a separate display device to offer greater flexibility in setup, distances, and cabling. The monitors are often black-and-white and have the scanning reversed to compensate for the reflection of the [[mirror]]. A peripheral device attached has a knob that can be turned to speed up, slow down, or even reverse the scrolling of the text. The text is usually displayed in white letters on a black background for the best readability, while cues are in inverse video ([[light-on-dark color scheme|black on white]]). Difficult words (mainly international names) are spelled out [[phonetic]]ally,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/|title=Reuters &#124; Breaking International News & Views|website=Reuters}}</ref> as are other particulars like "Nine-eleven" (to specify that the event [[September 11 attacks|9/11]] should not be pronounced "[[9-1-1|nine-one-one]]", for example).

With the development of inexpensive teleprompter [[software application]]s as well as free Web-based teleprompter applets, many different disciplines are now using teleprompters to help them deliver sermons, deliver speeches, and create quality audio recordings. Unlike their more advanced counterparts, these entry-level products work on desktop computers, laptop computers, and even tablet computers to enable the speaker to control the rate and flow of their speech. They are also used by many different organizations and schools to deliver prewritten information by relative novices. They are usually called "personal teleprompters".

===Presidential (or glass) teleprompters===
{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 230
| footer            = 
| image1            = President Ronald Reagan saluting the crowd at the Republican National Convention.jpg
| alt1              = A man, wearing a suit, saluting while standing between two transparent, glass teleprompters
| caption1          = President [[Ronald Reagan]] between two reflective teleprompters in the [[Caesars Superdome|Louisiana Superdome]] during the [[1988 Republican National Convention]]
| image2            = President of the United States Barack Obama Democratic National Convention 2012 (50100004413).jpg
| alt2              = A man, wearing a suite, standing behind two transparent, glass teleprompters
| caption2          = President [[Barack Obama]] in 2012, behind two teleprompters, whose monitors are embedded in the floor of the stage. Teleprompters were an issue in the [[2012 United States presidential election]] as Republicans criticized Obama for using teleprompters.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rucker |first1=Philip |title=Republicans mock Obama's teleprompter use |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-mock-obamas-teleprompter-use/2011/10/18/gIQA6hEivL_story.html |access-date=September 1, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019174855/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-mock-obamas-teleprompter-use/2011/10/18/gIQA6hEivL_story.html |archive-date=October 19, 2011}}</ref>
}}

Glass teleprompters were first used at the [[1956 Democratic National Convention]]. The inventor of the teleprompter, Hubert Schlafly, explained that he wanted to create a less obtrusive teleprompting system than the ones used at the time. He said, "We developed a 'one-way mirror' device we called the ''Speech View'' system... The prompter, hidden in the base, reflected the text on the glass to the speaker while the audience looked through the glass without being aware of the text. Two such prompters, one on the right and one on the left of the speaker allowed him to switch from one to the other and appear to address the entire audience".<ref name="TTM">Laurie Brown, ''The Teleprompter Manual'' (Pleasant Ridge, Michigan: The Difference Press, 2006), pp. 5–6. {{ISBN|0-9767761-0-3}}.</ref>

Schlafly's company then created a speaker's lectern that included two synchronized glass teleprompters and a range of technological innovations including air conditioning and an adjustable-height speaker's platform. The success of the system led the company to develop a new model for use on TV cameras, with the glass placed directly in front of the lens. The camera "looked through the glass; the performer looked directly at the TV audience and was able to read the text word for word. This device now has worldwide use".<ref name="TTM"/>

Typically, a screen on either side of the speaker shows mirrored text from upward-facing floor monitors at the base of a stand supporting a [[one-way mirror]] at the top, angled down towards the screen. The speaker sees the text on the screen reflected in the mirror, while the audience sees what looks like a sheet of tinted glass on each side of the speaker.

Schlafly's glass teleprompters were also used for the [[1956 Republican National Convention]], and at both parties' conventions from then on. In 1964, glass teleprompters were used by [[Robert F. Kennedy]], at the time the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]], who served in both the [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and early [[Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] Administrations (1961–1964), to deliver his convention speech.<ref name="Getty"/>

===Confidence monitors===
In 1996, for the first time, speakers at the [[1996 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]], held at the [[United Center]] in [[Chicago]], Illinois, used a four-teleprompter system: as can be seen at another convention in image (A), the first three prompters are placed to the left, right and in front of the speaker, the latter embedded within the speaker's lectern, enabling the speaker to look down at the lectern without losing their place in the text of the speech; while in image (B), the fourth prompter is a large confidence monitor located immediately below the lenses of the TV broadcast cameras, at a distance of several meters/yards from the speaker.

This modification to the traditional two-teleprompter set-up continues to be in use at both the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] and [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] parties' national conventions: the two glass teleprompters on either side of the speaker's lectern create the illusion that the speaker is looking directly at the audience in the hall, the monitor embedded in the lectern, together with the fourth, much larger teleprompter screen, known as a "confidence monitor", placed immediately below the broadcast TV cameras which are located some distance away from the convention stage on a specially-constructed broadcasting gantry. This placement of the center prompter creates the illusion that the speaker is periodically looking straight into the camera lens and thereby appears to directly address the TV audience watching the televised Convention coverage.<ref name=DFP/>

In 2006, speakers at the [[Liberal Democrat Conference]], held at the [[Brighton Centre]] in [[Brighton]], UK also used a three-screen system (but this time consisting entirely of large off-stage confidence monitors mounted on poles — which are often described outside North America, together with glass teleprompters, as "[[autocue]]s"), where the skill required for those using it, according to the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]' former leader, [[Menzies Campbell]] (2006—2008), is to move their gaze seamlessly from one screen to the other: left, center (near the broadcast TV cameras), right and then back again.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W38dAwAAQBAJ&q=%22menzies+campbell+my+autobiography%22+autocues&pg=PT248|title=Menzies Campbell: My Autobiography|author=Campbell, Menzies|work=Hachette Books, London|date=2014|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=9781444796643|access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>

As well as helping the speaker to appear to sometimes directly address the TV audience during his or her speech, this system allows the speaker – in another case cited, the party's then-new leader, [[Nick Clegg]] (2008–2015) – to abandon the podium lectern and roam the stage, speaking with apparent spontaneity but in fact constantly assisted by three large autocue screens placed throughout the conference hall.<ref name="Guardian"/> Ironically, this use of the system was adopted by Clegg to counter the oratorical success of another party leader, [[David Cameron]] (later to become British Prime Minister), who bestrode stages while speaking seemingly off-the-cuff, having memorized key parts of his speech.<ref name="Atkinson">{{cite web|url=http://maxatkinson.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/cleggs-conference-speech-definitely-ok.html|title=Clegg's conference speech: 'definitely OK, absolutely fine, without any doubt not bad'|author=Atkinson, Max|date=24 September 2009|access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>

This use of multiple off-stage confidence monitors also dispenses with the need for glass teleprompters to be present on the conference stage, thereby reducing "stage clutter", and removing the inevitable restrictions on the speaker's movement and field of vision imposed by on-stage glass prompters. The disadvantage of such a system is that the provision of "giant teleprompters" becomes essential to maintaining the illusion of speaking with apparent spontaneity.<ref name="Atkinson"/>
<gallery class="center" widths="290" heights="190">
File:2012 DNC day 2 (7958010012).jpg|(A) The first three teleprompters: A monitor screen partly embedded in the lectern's desktop displays the scrolling text of the speech in synchrony with two screens embedded in the podium floor. They are on either side of the speaker, reflected by the angled glass teleprompters above them. Click this image and the ones below to see the four-teleprompter system more clearly.
File:2012 DNC day 3 Brian Schweitzer (7959825568).jpg|(B) The fourth teleprompter: A large confidence monitor displays the scrolling text of the speech immediately below the lenses of the broadcast TV cameras, several meters/feet away from the speaker.
File:Barack Obama Denver Speech 2008.jpg|(C) The above-described four-teleprompter set-up in use at the [[2008 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], USA (The large confidence monitor under the TV cameras is near the bottom far right of this frame.)
</gallery>