Hello and welcome to the TranslatorsCafe.com Channel! In this video I am going to explain
how to make a teleprompter and a “camera pedestal” for a home video studio. Not like
this one. Such hydraulic pedestals are not necessary for a budget home studio. Like this
one. Though it looks like a monster, its cost is small — 150 to 380 dollars depending
on how much of your time you want to spend on making it. All existing solutions are either
greatly overpriced (tens of thousands of dollars) or do not perform well. For the home studio
up and down movement of the camera is not necessary.
So, here is my solution. Convenient and not expensive. I used it to make all videos with
the presenter on the screen on the TranslatorsCafe.com YouTube channel.
You probably know that the hard work is done behind the scene that makes a presenter look
so effortless in the final video product. Those who are on a tight budget use simple
things like smartphones to record their videos. Others use more complicated things.
Some presenters memorize everything. Others use simple things to help them to speak smoothly.
It can be a piece of paper, or a smartphone or tablet attached to the camera.
In professional studios prompters like these are used. They are controlled by teleprompter
operators. I use this “monster” and want to tell you about it because it is convenient
even if you make videos not every day, but only once a month.
A teleprompter, télésouffleur in French or autocue in British English is a device
consisting of a computer and a display that prompts the person speaking with a text of
a script or speech. It is important that the speaker looks straight into the lens of the
video camera. Therefore the text must be displayed over the lens. This is achieved by means of
a clear glass or beam splitter, which is a glass with transparent coating of aluminum
usually deposited from aluminum vapor. An ordinary 2-mm glass can be used, but the
reflected text is somewhat blurry because of two reflecting surfaces of a glass.
The monitor is placed horizontally under the glass, which reflects the mirrored text and
shows it to the presenter. Because the speaker looks directly into the lens, he appears to
be speaking spontaneously. As you can see, the camera does not see the text.
In a professional setup a remote control is often used by teleprompter operators to control
the speed of scrolling of the text or to reverse scrolling. The text of the script or speech
is usually displayed in white letters on the black background. Difficult words like names
or numbers are often phonetically spelled, especially if a presenter speaks using his
or her second language (like me). In this home studio setup, a stationary camera
is shown. The assistant is a teleprompter operator, camera operator and sound technician
at the same time. With the advent of tablets, it became easier
to control the speed of scrolling manually. Maybe you do not know that the scrolling is
almost never automated in a professional environment. It is a teleprompter operator who controls
the formatting of the text and the speed of its scrolling. The operator must match the
speed of the scrolling to the presenter who may often change the speed of talking. In
a budget studio you can ask a friend to be a teleprompter operator.
I tried several applications and did not find them useful and convenient. Therefore, I prepare
files in an image processing application. I also tried several remote control units
and decided that the best way is to ask an assistant to scroll mirrored text on a tablet
with a mirror and to display it on the monitor under the mirror. Using the mirror is much
simpler than a headache with mirroring applications. Any simple graphic application can do a mirroring
job. A smartphone is not suitable for a teleprompter
because it is too small. For a good quality picture a medium telephoto lens must be used.
Distance to the camera in this case will be 3 to 4 meters, therefore a 17 or 19-inch monitor
is much more convenient than a smartphone or a tablet. Any old monitor can be used for
this purpose. It is convenient for your assistant if he
or she can view the picture from the camera on a large screen. A presenter also needs
sometimes to check the camera image. Here is our shopping list:
Inexpensive 7-inch tablet (most probably you already have one)
Three old 17 or 19-inch monitors: $30 or nothing if you find them in your garage or on the
curb SVGA monitor Y splitter
HDMI to SVGA video converter with audio cable HDMI to SVGA video converter without audio
cable Rack — I used an old one for audio equipment
An old tripod A prefabricated prompter mirror consisting
of two 28x36 cm frames, a 30/70 beam splitter glass, a hood and a piano hinge: $200. If
your budget is really tight, you can save $200 and make your own prompter mirror for
just $25 or 35 if you get a couple of frames with a glass (2 mm glass is better), hinges
and some flannel in a dollar store and sew the hood. A simple glass can be used instead
of a 30/70 beam splitter glass if you are on a budget.
8-Outlet power bar Cable strips
Simple plexiglass picture frame Mini photo ball head
Small monitor wall mount bracket Total $145 to $388.
I used this rack instead of a pedestal. The camera is installed so that its lens is at
my eye level. When the rack is not used, it stands behind the door and is used for storage
of equipment. The tablet is connected to the monitor through
the HDMI to SVGA converter. These converters are made with all types of HDMI connectors,
therefore you should find the device with an HDMI connector you need. Its price on eBay
is about 3 dollars or 4 to 5 dollars if it has a jack for the sound cable.
In a home studio it’s the teleprompter operator responsibility to turn the recording on and
off and to check many other things. For this purpose another monitor is installed. It shows
the image from the camera to your assistant. The third monitor is installed for the presenter
who can occasionally look if everything is going well.
To connect both monitors to the HDMI output of the camera, an HDMI to SVGA converter and
SVGA Y-splitter are used as shown in the diagram. This box is used to neatly organize cables
connected to the power bar. Before it came here, it was a DVD player.
Let us look how it all works together. I deliberately did not elaborate on how exactly everything
was assembled. My goal was to show you the idea of using several computer monitors and
a tablet connected together as an inexpensive camera pedestal for a home studio on a budget.
So, that’s it for now. All TranslatorsCafe.com videos are made in English and Russian. All
videos are provided with subtitles in these languages, which allow using them to study
technical English as well as technical Russian. I hope you enjoyed this video and found the
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