October 6, 2005 If you ever wondered why reporters and news anchors look and sound so knowledgeable, one of the primary reasons is that they use teleprompters. A teleprompter mirrors the script from a laptop to a small LCD, which is reflected onto an angled beam splitter mirror in front of the camera lens. The audience never sees it but the “talent” reads the script as it scrolls on the screen. With the line between professional television and digital video production getting greyer by the day, and Apple Macintosh playing such a huge role in the production, we thought the new ProPrompter LCD was worth a mention. It’s a professional portable teleprompter made for the new world of DV cameras without the high costs associated with professional gear.
So the bottom line is that it’s cheap, works with gear you probably already have (windows laptops too) and it will add a degree of professionalism in that there’ll be no more looking at notes or some raggedy cue card off to the side. Your talent will look like a pro because the ProPrompter keeps the talent eye line within the diameter of the lens so you never see them read the copy. All you need is your Powerbook or iBook and your camera and Bodelin provides the rest in a custom storm case. It is light and portable and fits any DV camera with a lens diameter from 52mm to 100mm by way of a provided step down ring.
Bodelin ProPrompters are already in use by embedded media in both Afghanistan and Iraq because of durability, ease of use and they go anywhere your camera goes. The non-war zone use is with small mobile productions like webcasts, schools, corporate videos and commercials.
The ProPrompter became available in the Apple online Store from today, and is the only teleprompter offered by Apple – it’s a complete (LCD version) solution with included OSX (through Tiger) (Windows too) software. There’s a short flash video of all three models located here.
