Teleprompter

A teleprompter is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually below, the lens of a professional video camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the presenter using a sheet of clear glass or a specially prepared beam splitter. Light from the performer passes through the front side of the glass into the lens, while a shroud surrounding the lens and the back side of the glass prevents unwanted light from entering the lens.

Because the speaker does not need to look down to consult written notes, he appears to have memorized the speech or to be speaking spontaneously, looking directly into the camera lens. Cue cards, on the other hand, are always placed away from the lens axis, making the speaker look at a point beside the camera, which leaves an impression of distraction.

The word TelePrompTer, with internal capitalization, originated as a trade name used by the TelePrompTer Company, which first developed the device in the 1950s; it is now a genericized trademark. Autocue, a United Kingdom manufacturer of teleprompters, also finds its trademark used in a generic fashion in Commonwealth countries and some European countries.

Teleprompter (horse)

Teleprompter (11 April 1980 – October 2003) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the fifth running of the Arlington Million in 1985, a victory which helped to change the rules of racing in Europe. After being beaten in his only race as a two-year-old he was gelded and returned in 1983 to become a successful handicapper, winning four races. In the following year he made the transition to Group races and won Pacemaker International Stakes, Desmond Stakes, Prix Quincey and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. At a time when most of the top races in Europe were not open to him, the gelding recorded his greatest success in 1985 when he traveled to the United States to win the Arlington Million, one of the most valuable horse races in the world. Teleprompter won only one race after Arlington, but continued to run prominently in major races until his retirement in 1987. He died in 2003 at the age of twenty-three.

Background

Teleprompter was a large, powerfully-built bay gelding with a large white star bred at the Woodlands stud by his owner the 18th Earl of Derby's Stanley Estate. He was sired by Welsh Pageant, a one-mile specialist whose wins included the Lockinge Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Teleprompter's dam Ouija went on to produce Selection Board (also by Welsh Pageant), whose daughter Ouija Board was twice named Cartier Horse of the Year. Ouija was also closely related to the Australian champion Kingston Town.