What Is a Teleprompter? How It Works, Types and History

A teleprompter is a display that shows a speaker their script as scrolling text. It lets them read while looking at the camera or the audience instead of down at notes. In Britain the same device is usually called an autocue, after a British brand. The two words describe the same technology.

Most camera teleprompters put a sheet of angled, partly reflective glass in front of the lens. The speaker sees the words, and the camera films straight through them.

This guide covers what the word means, how the glass works, the main types of teleprompters, and a short history. That history runs from a suitcase of butcher paper to the US cable TV industry.

What is a teleprompter?

A teleprompter, also called an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of their speech or script (Wikipedia). Wikipedia compares using one to using cue cards. The difference is that the cards scroll by themselves and sit where you need to look.

The word itself was a brand name. The original product was sold as the "TelePrompTer", and the name became a genericized trademark (Wikipedia). That is why people now write teleprompter, or sometimes "tele prompter", for any make. In studios and at events you will also hear plain "prompter", as in "presidential prompter" or "podium prompter".

A complete teleprompter system usually has three parts:

• The script and the software that scrolls it at a set speed.
• A display, such as a monitor, tablet, phone or laptop screen.
• A way to put the text in the speaker's eye line. This might be angled glass over a camera lens, glass on a stand beside a podium, a screen at the front of a stage, or just the screen next to a webcam.

Autocue vs teleprompter: why the UK says autocue

Autocue is a brand name from Autocue Ltd, a British company. It became the leading supplier of script-reading equipment to the BBC and other UK broadcasters from the 1950s onwards (Teleprompter.com). The company was founded in 1955. In 1962 it licensed its first on-camera teleprompter, based on a patent by Jess Oppenheimer (Wikipedia).

An autocue device, an autocue prompter and a teleprompter device are the same thing. The difference is regional, not technical. It works the same way "hoover" became the everyday British word for any vacuum cleaner (Teleprompter.com).

The name also spread beyond Britain. In Dutch, "autocue" became the generic word, because there is no Dutch word for teleprompter (Wikipedia).

How does a teleprompter work?

There are two basic approaches. You can reflect the text on glass in front of the lens, or show it on a screen next to the lens.

Beam-splitter glass

The classic camera setup works like this:

1. A bright monitor sits below (or beside) the camera lens.
2. Above the monitor, a sheet of special glass called a beam splitter sits at about 45 degrees (Even Realities).
3. The glass reflects the screen up toward the speaker's eye line (Teleprompter.com).
4. Light from the speaker passes through the glass into the lens. A shroud around the lens and the back of the glass keeps stray light out. The speaker reads while looking straight at the lens, but the lens never records the words (Wikipedia).

A beam splitter is not an ordinary mirror. A standard mirror reflects everything. Teleprompter glass is both semi-transparent and semi-reflective (Moman).

A common coating lets about 70% of the light through to the camera, which keeps the picture bright. It reflects about 30% from the monitor toward the presenter (Moman). Other ratios exist, such as roughly 40% reflection and 60% transmission (InAirSpace). If a page tells you 70% of the light is reflected, it has the split backwards.

The coating matters. Ordinary glass or plexiglass in a DIY rig often causes ghosting, glare and poorer video (Even Realities).

Why teleprompter text is mirrored

Any mirror or beam splitter flips the reflected image horizontally. For the text to read correctly after it bounces off the glass, the screen underneath has to show it pre-flipped. That is what the mirror mode in prompter software does (ScrollCue).

If your words look backwards on the glass, turn on mirror mode. If they look upside down or sideways, check how the screen is mounted and adjust the flip or rotation. In Magic Teleprompt, for example, there are mirror and flip settings, plus rotation in 90-degree steps.

On-screen prompting without glass

The simpler approach skips the glass. The script scrolls on the phone, laptop or tablet you are recording with, as close to the camera as you can place it. App-based teleprompters on a phone or tablet face only the presenter, not the room (Teleprompter.com).

With this setup the words sit beside the lens rather than over it. Keep the text column narrow and close to the camera so your eyes don't drift far.

How fast does the text scroll?

The scroll should follow the speaker, not the other way round. Teleprompter.com puts natural speaking pace at about 125–150 words per minute in one article (script speed tips). Another of its articles says 130–180 (how it works). Roughly 125–180 wpm is a sensible starting range.

For comparison, Huey's early research measured reading aloud at about 213 wpm (Wikipedia). That is faster than most people want to speak on camera.

Types of teleprompters

Even specialist sites group the types differently. One Teleprompter.com article lists presidential, camera-mounted, tablet and app teleprompters (Teleprompter.com). Another of its pages lists camera-mounted, floor-standing, presidential and software-based (Teleprompter.com). The clearest way to sort them is by where the text appears.

Camera-mounted (through-the-lens)

A beam-splitter hood fits on the front of the camera, with the monitor underneath. Camera-mounted teleprompters are the most common setup for video production (Teleprompter.com). Use one whenever the speaker has to look straight down the lens.

Presidential (podium) prompters

A presidential prompter uses two panes of beam-splitter glass on separate stands, each angled at 45 degrees. Each pane has its own monitor reflecting the text. A coating on the back of the glass means only the speaker can see the words (CuePrompter).

The speaker turns from one pane to the other and appears to be addressing different parts of the room. You will see these at political addresses, corporate keynotes and award ceremonies (Teleprompter.com).

Confidence monitors

A confidence monitor is a large screen at the foot of a stage. It shows slide previews, lyrics or notes to the people on stage during live events (Teleprompter.com). Performers can move around the stage freely and simply glance downstage to read it (American Movie Co.).

Some lists treat confidence monitors and presidential prompters as the same thing. They aren't. One is an open screen on the floor. The other is see-through glass at eye level.

Tablet and phone rigs

These are smaller beam-splitter hoods that use a tablet or phone as the monitor. They work like a camera-mounted prompter on a smaller budget. As of 11 October 2026, Teleprompter.com put tablet rigs at around $50 to $200, with camera-mounted setups starting at $200 and going up (Teleprompter.com).

Software and app teleprompters

Software teleprompters run on a phone, tablet or browser with no extra equipment (Teleprompter.com), and app teleprompters start free. There are several free options. Tella's free browser teleprompter, for instance, offers mirror mode and keyboard controls with no account and no watermark (checked 11 October 2026, Tella).

The same scrolling script can be read straight off the screen, or put under glass in any of the rigs above.

Who uses a teleprompter?

• TV and video. The device was built for a television drama, and camera-mounted rigs are still the standard for straight-to-camera video.
• Politicians and keynote speakers. Presidential prompters let them read a speech while seeming to talk to the room.
• Stage performers and presenters. Confidence monitors carry lyrics, notes and slide previews.
• Anyone recording on a phone or laptop. App and browser prompters need nothing extra.

A short history of the teleprompter

The first teleprompter

The teleprompter was invented in 1950 by Hubert "Hub" Schlafly, an electrical engineer, together with Broadway producer Fred Barton Jr. and business executive Irving Kahn (Teleprompter.com). Barton, under his legal name Fred Barkau, filed the patent application for the "TelePrompTer" on April 21, 1949. The patent was granted on April 24, 1953 (History.com).

The first models were simple, hand-operated machines. One was a roll of butcher paper inside a suitcase (History.com). The device was first used live on December 4, 1950, on the soap opera The First Hundred Years. It was built to help an actor on that show who could not remember his lines (History.com; Wikipedia).

From paper scrolls to screens

In 1955, the inventor Luther George Simjian patented an in-camera teleprompter, which allowed for more natural reading (History.com). In Britain, Autocue licensed its first on-camera prompter in 1962 (Wikipedia).

In the 1960s the side-by-side podium setup appeared, with text reflected onto angled glass on either side of the lectern (CuePrompter). Later, prompters moved from printed scrolls to monitors, to computer-driven automatic scrolling and, more recently, to voice recognition (CuePrompter).

First president to use a teleprompter

The short answer is Dwight D. Eisenhower. As General Eisenhower he used one for a campaign speech in September 1952. In 1954 he became the first president to use one for a State of the Union address (CuePrompter).

Herbert Hoover used one earlier in 1952. He read from a Schlafly-designed prompter at the Republican National Convention in Chicago (Wikipedia), reportedly without much success (WHCA history). But Hoover was a former president by then, not a sitting one.

TelePrompTer Corporation and cable TV

If you have seen "Teleprompter" next to cable TV, it is the same company. At first, the company's own public relations staff ran the prompters. In the 1960s TelePrompTer sold the prompter business it was named after and invested in cable and satellite broadcasting (Wikipedia). Schlafly is credited with leading the industry's move toward satellite television (Wikipedia).

After a 1970 merger with H&B American Corporation, TelePrompTer became the largest cable television operator in the United States. Its other holdings included Filmation and Muzak, and it later bought a 50% stake in Showtime. Westinghouse Broadcasting acquired the company in 1981, and its cable systems became Group W Cable (Logos Wiki).

Bottom line

A teleprompter, or autocue, puts the script where the speaker needs to look. On camera, that usually means reflecting it off 70/30 beam-splitter glass so the lens films through the words. The main types are camera-mounted, presidential, confidence monitor, tablet rig and software. The text has to be mirrored whenever glass is involved.

The easiest way to try software prompting is in a browser. The free Magic Teleprompt web app runs without an account, including on Windows and Android browsers. Its mirror, flip and rotate settings cover beam-splitter glass if you add a rig later. Apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV are coming soon.