Any advice on the size of the teleprompter for an interrotron?

[Noam Osband]

So, I'm building an interrotron to use for interviews for an upcoming project. I'm deciding on the type of teleprompter I want in front of my camera (an HMC-150) and the two ones I'm considering are these:

Ultralight 8" Teleprompter - Ultra-Light Teleprompters - Teleprompters
Flex Series Teleprompter - Teleprompters (the 10.4" model)

I looked at both of them and the 8" screen just seemed a bit small to me. It seems like I'd want the slightly bigger monitor to have a larger image to better connect with the subject.

Does anyone have any experience with this and care to give some advice?

[Marc M. Myers]

First, "interrotron " is the worst name in years for a system....Sounds like the most important feature should be a method to keep the floor dry when you are dipping the subject's head under water....
But anyway, bigger is always better for teleprompters. If you use a small screen you can adapt by using a larger fonts. Larger fonts do have to run faster so there's less room for error by the teleprompter operator and its harder for talent to read ahead to best phrase the text.

[Renton Maclachlan]

I have made a teleprompter for use in my studio. My reflective glass area when viewed by the talent is 480mm wide by 280mm high. I used to use my laptop with the program 'Proprompter' on it to invert the image and throw the text but found I couldn't use the laptop due to fan noise from it. It was only about 2metres from my mics and the fan noise was unacceptable. Therefore I have switched to using a 20inch LCD monitor driven from the laptop (Proprompter Pro has a dual screen mode), and put the laptop in a sound proofed box which eliminates fan noise at the mics.

The lift in readability with the LCD verses the laptop is great and gives me far greater confidence when presenting. I can fit more on the screen in bigger text and thus the text can run slower, and any speed changes necessary don't have to be violent. Seeing normally I am the talent, I control the text by the use of a wireless mouse. I've worked out my normal reading speed and start at that setting, but may speed up, or slow down, or stop/start text as required once underway...

[Noam Osband]

Well, I'm trying to build something like this, not a torture device, which is why I'm concerned about the size of my face: http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany....web%20page.jpg

Alas, it seems like this machinery might get damaged by the splashing emitted from a water tank :-)

[Brian Drysdale]

I suspect you'll need something that gives a relatively good sized face on the screen at the distance the interviewee is viewing the screen from. Therefore I'd tend to go larger, so it looks less artificial and the mechanics aren't distracting.