Teleprompter app woes, any wired or standalone solutions?

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pmcdonald

Active member
We shoot teleprompted deliveries about once or twice a year - not enough to really devote a lot of time or money to perfecting a solution but enough to have something on standby that should just work.

To date we've used a few iPad-based apps (Teleprompt+, iCue) but it's always a flakey experience. The connection frequently drops out between the phone controller and the iPad and when they do hold sync it's typically very laggy. This is using the latest iPad Pro and iPhone 7. I stress I believe this is an issue with the communication between the controller and tablet, not the apps themselves.

I'm looking at options to get around these issues. Are there any wired controllers that negate the lagginess? Or stand alone systems that don't need a tablet or external computer? Cheers!
 
I agree. I like working with dedicated prompter people. They're especially good, imo, at working with nonprofessional talent who vary their delivery speed, go off script, and all that. Of course they're good with pros, too, but it's on corporate gigs with CEOs, customers, or whatever, that they're really handy. Also, they have good teleprompters.

Worth it, at least if you can include the cost in your budget.
 
I use a program from the Mac App Store called Presentation Prompter. I then connect the laptop to an iPad via USB cable that is running the Duet screen mirroring app. The computer sees the iPad as an external screen. It works great for me, very little if any perceptible lag.
 
We used to use ProPrompter for years, on the road(network sports). Saved our butts countless times when we only had 5-10 minutes of "quiet" time at the race track to knock out stat heavy stand-ups and other on-camera deliveries. We usually mounted an iPad directly over the lens and controlled it with an iPhone. We all had the app loaded on our phones. The biggest thing was just making sure the iPhone and iPad were both running the same version of the app when you were controlling the other.

I actually bought their "half mirror" prompter set-up(iPad/screen not included) and used it a few times for shoots in-town(corporate and network). It was too big and bulky to travel with, though.

It's nowhere near as versatile or quick(to make script changes) as a dedicated prompter and operator, but it was useful when we needed it.
 
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