Ballast Media

This is my final entry about the teleprompter.  Just wanted to show a few pictures of what it looks like in use, how the laptop is setup and what software I’m using.  Also, a few thoughts on some additions I’m planning on making.

First, here is the teleprompter in use.  You can see what it looks like to someone reading it, and what it looks like from the camera’s point of view.  You just place your laptop screen down on the shelf flat and I propped up the keyboard with some books.

Talent Perspective

Camera Perspective

Finally, here is a shot of someone who is reading the teleprompter on video.  You can see they are looking right in to the camera.  Nice!  I’ve used this teleprompter on every video I’ve made since building it.  Definitly well worth the investment!

West Reading the Teleprompter

The teleprompter generated so much buzz, other people started asking to use it!  Here Rachel Vander Merwe borrowed it for a video she is putting together.

Rachel using the Teleprompter

Finally, I’m going to add a support piece for the black felt cloth.  Right now it just kind of rests on the top of the glass and then the camera.  I’m going to put in two supports and staple the felt down to it.  This will help clean up how it looks and also make it so that the felt won’t fall down in front of the camera.

I am using a software program called Prompt to generate the text for the teleprompter.  It mirrors the text on screen so that it appears correctly reflected in the glass for the talent.  It also handles scrolling the text, etc.  You can find it here.

Let’s pick up where I left off in the last installment of my DIY Teleprompter blog post.  First I’ll show you the slot cut in the bottom upright supports and the notch cut in the top upright supports.  Thanks to a great guy named Ralph for making these cuts for me with a router!

Upright Supports (Joining Top and Bottom)

Using the holes that were drilled in the top upright supports (at the opposite end from the notch we can join the top and bottom upright supports using 1/4-20 bolts and wingnuts.

Laptop Platform

Just above the two holes in the top support mount 2 angle brackets on each side, facing inwards.  These will hold the laptop platform.  On the outside surface of the top upright support you will need to set the heads of the bolts in to the wood so that the bottom upright support can slide up and down unhindered, allowing for height adjustment.  Now, with the remainder of your plywood (left over from building the base), drill mounting holes in it so that you can mount it to the angle brackets as shown in the pictures below.  This platform will hold your laptop which will be viewed in the glass.

Glass Reflector

I painted the wood black, so in the rest of the pictures you will see all of the parts in black.  I covered the edges of the glass with gaffers tape.  This serves two purposes, one it keeps you from cutting yourself on the sharp edges and two it helps the glass fit snuggly in the notch in the top upright support.  Here is the teleprompter pretty much complete.

I’m thinking of purchasing some black fabric to cover over the top.  I think this will help the reflection of the laptop be seen, especially in bright locations, like outside.  In the third installment of this DIY blog post I’ll show you the teleprompter in use, how to position the laptop and camera, etc.

Teleprompter

Our worship pastor, West Breedlove, recently came to me with the idea for this project, a DIY Teleprompter.  He found this site (which I credit with the inspiration for this project) and was wondering if we could make one ourselves.  Since teleprompters are all the rage to talk about in the media these days, I thought it would make a fun how-to blog post.  I’ve made a few changes to the design from the site above, mainly to try and make it more portable and easier to dissassemble.  So, here you have it, a step-by-step guide to making your own teleprompter.

First, the parts list.

1. (1) 24″ x 24″ glass – standard – not the non-reflective type (Hobby Lobby $16)
2. (4) 1×3 6′ pine planks  (Of course actual dimensions are 3/4″ x 2 1/2″)
3. (1) 24″x48″ 1/4″ plywood.
4.  (4) 2 1/2″ industrial wheels
5. (lots) 1/4-20 bolts and wing-nuts
6.  Wood screws
7.  Wood glue

Step 1 – The Base
The first step is to build the base.  Cut 4 pieces of the 1×3 pine planks, two at 24″ and two at 23 1/4″.  These pieces are glued and screwed together to form a square, ok I guess its a rectangle because the sides aren’t exactly the same.  Arrange the planks so that one side of the rectangle is 24″ and the other side is 24 3/4″. (hint, the 23 1/4″ planks go inside.)

Cut the plywood in half so that one section is 24 3/4″ long by 24″ wide.  This piece then gets mounted on top of the pine square, again using glue and screws.  Turn the whole thing over and mark the location for your wheels and then drill the holes for mounting.  Be sure and leave enough space between the wheel and the edge for the wheel to swivel freely.

Mark the location where the upright supports will attach to the base on the side of the base.  (Use the sides so that the supports are the furthest distance from each other, 24 3/4″)  Drill the 4 holes that will be used to bolt the upright support to the base.

Step 2 – The upright supports

Cut two pieces of the 1×3 plank to 3′ long. These pieces will attach to the base and will make the bottom section of the upright supports.  Mark the location of the holes and drill.  Test that you are able to pass the bolts through the holes.

Next, cut two 4′ pieces of the 1×3 plank.  These pieces will make the top part of the upright supports.  They will attach to the bottom supports using bolts that will pass through a slot that is cut in the bottom supports. (I’ll show this in part 2)  Drill two holes in the upper supports at 4″ and 8″ from the end to be used to connect to the lower support.  At the other end of the top supports, mark and cut a notch at a 45 degree angle for the glass.

Thats it for today.  I’ll post again as soon as I continue work on this project.  The next step will be to build a shelf for the laptop to rest on and then assemble the whole thing together.  I’ll probably paint it as well.

Kind of a random post, but I’ve been putting together a simple video system so that our organist can see the choir director on a monitor located at the organ.  Due to the size of our organ and the angles involved it’s hard for the organist to see much more then the head of the choir director.  In doing this, I needed to figure out what type of lens to use on the camera given the physical constrains of where we can locate the camera on stage

I came across this chart on ebay of all places.  I’ve copied the pertinent information here.  3.6mm seems to be a very common lens, and in our case a 92 degree field of view will work just fine.

1.2mm lens has approximate 185 degree field of view
1.7mm lens has approximate 170 degree field of view
2.1mm lens has approximate 158 degree field of view
2.5mm lens has approximate 147 degree field of view
2.8mm lens has approximate 130 degree field of view
NATURAL HUMAN EYE 2.97 MM
3.0mm lens has approximate 127 degree field of view
3.6mm lens has approximate 92 degree field of view
4.0mm lens has approximate 88 degree field of view
6/0mm lens has approximate 78 degree field of view
8.0mm lens has approximate 58 degree field of view
12 mm lens has approximate 28 degree field of view
16 mm lens has approximate 19 degree field of view
25 mm lens has approximate 13 degree field of view
50 mm lens has approximate 8 degree field of view

The system I came  up with will consist of a “board” type security camera mounted on the choir director’s music stand, or a mic stand directly infront of the choir director.  A BNC cable will connect the camera to an 8″ LCD monitor that will be located at the organ.

If you have more then 2GB of RAM in your computer, you may be surprised to learn that your Windows computer only allows a single process (program) to use a maximum of 2GB of RAM.  So, if for instance your computer has 4GB of RAM and you are trying to run a single application that would benefit from more RAM (After Effects), your out of luck, it’s limited to 2GB.  But there is a way to get around this.

If your using WinXP or older, you can put a switch statement in your boot.ini.  But, I’m using Vista so it’s a bit more complicated.  You need to run a command  at the command line with administrator privileges.  Enter the following: “BCDEDIT /set increaseuserva xxxx” where the x’s are the amount of ram you want to increase to.  Use 3072 for 3GB.

I tried increasing my laptop to 3GB and the system is still stable, although I’ve noticed that it slows down a bit more then usual when closing and launching applications.  This may be due to the OS running out of physical RAM to use, but that is just my speculation.  I’ve definitely notice a marked improvement in the performance and rendering time of After Effects!

Working for a church, I love open source (free) software that works really well and makes my life easier.  Super is one of those programs.  If you do any kind of media/video work on a PC, you should become familiar with Super.  It will encode video from one format to another.  While sometimes it can be a bit finicky, especially if your source video is of strange codec origins, usually a bit of trial and error will produce satisfactory results.  If you don’t have Adobe’s flash encoder, Super is a great way to encode flash video.  In fact, I use Super as the last step in generating my tutorials to create the flash file that you view online.

Check it out, Super.

(Just a word of warning, the Super website is a pain, you’ve got to click through several pages to get to the actual download page.)

The answer is, farther than you probably think.  While the IEEE1394 standard only specifies cables up to 15ft (4.5m) there are ways that you can extend that length.

I’ve succesfully run firewire up to 198ft using two in line repeater amps like this and three cables like this. You need to use high quality 6 pin firewire cables throughout because  Pin 5 & 6 carry power to the repeaters.  You also need to be plugged in to a device that can provide power on the line.

I ran this setup for years connecting a couple Canon XL1s cameras to a datavideo SE-800 mixer.  (Note that the mixer does not provide power on it’s DV inputs, so there was a firewire hub between the mixer and the first long cable.)

I’ve received a request to help light an interview for video…on a budget.  So, if budget is a consideration, what equipment would I use and how would I light the interview?  Read on….