How fast will this thing go?

One of the very first questions newcomers to the world of teleprompters often ask is "how fast will this thing go?"

The answer is that it's the teleprompter operator's job to follow your pace, not the other way around. An experienced operator will never let those words leave the screen until you've read them.  It's like riding the clutch in a car . . . they'll adjust the speed of the teleprompter to keep up with you, or slow down as the case may be.

Different sentences or paragraphs may require that you slow down sometimes. For example, you may be required to read statistics, phone numbers, web site addresses or long titles.

Speak at a comfortable, natural conversational pace. Pauses are okay. Ad-libbing is also okay . . . as long as it's okay with others involved in your project or speech. An experienced prompter operator will hold or follow as necessary.

What about the situation where you are the presenter AND the prompter operator . . . how does that work?

In a future post, I'll reveal the two crucial pieces of equipment you'll need to turn yourself into superman when you want to fly solo.