Tele-prompting is a way to get your on-air talent to read like a pro. The idea is to get the script in front of the talent and camera so they can look into the camera and recite the script like they are not reading it. This takes some talent by the on-air person. And it also takes some good setup and right equipment by the video professional.

If you have been around video as long as I have. You may remember when it was very hard to get a teleprompter in the field. Also how costly tele-prompting software and the specialized hardware you once needed was. Well that was the past and if you are like me and use a Macintosh running OS X to edit your video. You may just like to use that same PowerBook or desktop Mac to have a cheap and easy solution to get professional tele-prompters for your on-air talent.

Now the aisles of NAB and Video Expo are full of vendors selling solutions for tele-prompting in the studio and in the field. Some of these solutions can cost you thousands of dollars. Well my goal was to find an adequate solution on the cheap. I have searched out software that puts tele-prompting on my OS X Macintosh. I tried several freeware, shareware, and commercial apps. I also have some hardware ideas.

The software I wanted had to allow easy editing, importing of text files and Word documents. I need to be able to save several scripts on my Mac. I needed to have a way to do smooth scrolling of text that I can control the speed and follow the talent’s read. Of course font size, type, font colors and background colors had to be available. Mirror text display is also important.

The software I demoed was from free to $649. Now you may think, well Stephen, you get what you pay for. And I would tend to agree with you most of the time. But not this time. The software I liked the best was one of the cheapest ones to buy! All this was tested on Tiger 10.4.1.

The software I bought was only $65 shareware. It was Presentation Prompter 4.1.1 which is easy to find on versiontracker.com or macupdate.com. I decided on this after comparing several others. I chose it as it did everything I wanted, worked better than most of the others, was simple to use, versatile, and was far cheaper than some of the others. This was not a price only comparison. Presentation Prompter 4.1.1 is available like all the others, for demo. so if you need software like this try it out.

Hardware
I tried this on a PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz with 1.5 GB RAM, and ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Graphic Card with excellent results. Especially in the scrolling. This is very important with tele-prompt software. As it has to be smooth and readable as it scrolls. I found Presentation Prompter 4.1.1 to scroll better than even the $649 software! I also tested this on my much older PowerMac G4 1.42 and a Mac mini with good results.

Now you can easily just prop your PowerBook right under the tripod mounted camera’s lens as high as you can get it. It works, I have done it. The software can be controlled, sped up and down with a mouse.

I have added a Griffin Technology PowerMate scroll wheel which is a useful touch costing $44. The driver with the PowerMate allows you to easily add scroll/stop/start to tele-prompter software. I am sure another shuttle-type knob like Contour Pro would also work well.

I also recently bought a kit, the PT8000 $699, from ikan. It comes with an 8 inch touch screen VGA monitor and a bracket to mount on top of your camera. They include prompting software that comes with kit that runs on Windows only. They were happy to sell me the kit without it, reducing the price $99 (the price of the software by itself), as I do all my video work on a Mac. So I paid $600 for kit. Since the Presentation Prompter 4.1.1 was only $65, I am ahead in the game. The monitor with touch screen from ikan is also a nice display for my Mac mini! It also has S-Video, Composite, and audio inputs. A 12 volt and AC adaptor for the monitor both come with the kit. This leaves lots of possibilities. Mac mini in car? Well maybe!

Now the best way to use a teleprompter is to have a specialized monitor that utilizes a two way mirror so the text is seen by the talent right directly over the lens. But I have found my method to be workable, easy, and cheap. Especially for “stand-ups” in the field. With the PowerBook also having mirror display, and composite out the flexibility is great.

There are several other uses for tele-prompting software that include live presentations, speeches, and narrations that are off camera or audio only.

The other software I tried is listed here for you. Presentation Prompter 4.1.1 is what I chose. These applications can be found easily on versiontracker.com or macupdate.com. I rejected these on performance more than price. I was willing to pay for more features if they were worth it.

Prompt Lite 6 – Free – Loses Mac Finder and all control of machine! Basically it takes over.
Prompt 6 (full version) – $44, same as above, few more features.
VideoCue – $99.99 – Not really a teleprompter app but interesting.
IntelliPrompter Presenter – $349.95 – Word document import did not work, scrolling not smooth, way over priced. Like Presentation Prompter somewhat but not as good, but way more money!
IntelliPrompter Pro – $649.95, same as above, few more features.
ProPrompter – $99 – Does not launch at all on Tiger

I am sure there are others. And I have tried several similar teleprompter software on Windows. I saw no advantage to using Windows for this. Especially since my video work is done on a Mac. If I saw a better package for Windows I would have considered it. But I did not see a better one based on price and performance and that included the one ikan ships with their PT8000 kit. This software performs better that systems I installed in TV studios just a few years ago that cost thousands of dollars. So there is really no longer an excuse to not have a teleprompter on an important production.

Also see this post.

    | Tags: .mac, shareware, video production