The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

That would be "half way across the channel", surely?

I'll get me coat.

No shes left the BBC.

I presumed wrong then!

Does anyone else think that the delivery of Look North's reporter Shirley Henry sounds like she should be reporting on the latest Harry Potter news on Newsround

Have I missed a running joke or something? During the ending wide shot on the 3pm Look North bulletin from Leeds, somebody who I assume was the floor manager came into shot, holding a roll of gaffa tape, and sat on the sofa to chat with Ian. Quite bizarre!

Incidentally what is that keypad type device which sits on the sofa next to Ian? I don't think it's the autocue control, that's a pedal on the floor behind the coffee table.

Oh this has been going on for some time now - I think its all Ian's idea!

I suspect the keypad is also part of the autocue control system. The kit favoured by the BBC usually comes with a pedal and a table-top control which work together. The pedal is like a sewing machine: the harder you press down on it, the faster the script runs through. The keypad has a couple of buttons on it, to skip forward or backward through stories. Pressing both buttons together resets to the top of the programme (very handy after a rehearsal!). There's a third kind of controller which has the two skip butons and a scroll wheel (rather like a shuttle dial on a VCR). These are usually used by autocue operators but I have seen one or two used on set (East Midlands Today for example, certinly used to use one just out of shot! Very bizarre). Finally there is also a wireless controller available, which is handheld and has a thumb rocker to go through the scripts. I've seen some presenters use this kind of device for the 8pm summary when they're standing up at green-screen (pedalling while standing looks kind of awkward!)

I have one of these in the house, which I use for video editing, but it also works with Autocue (and other brand) prompters.

http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/17547_l.jpg

Yes indeed. Carry beyond the Channel Islands and to a rolling news channel with a number between 23 and 25 in its title...

the prompter isn't made by autocue, it's made by a different company - in the same way that hoover make vacuum cleaners but a vacuum cleaner isn't necessarily a hoover, and sellotape make sticky back plastic etc etc. As you say there is a variety of controllers available, including voice recognition. There are 2 types of foot pedal, magneto and potentiometer versions, and various versions of hand controller. All interchangeable, and all useable simultaneously which is maybe a bad thing. The foot switches work well. No particular standard, and is often down to the presenters preference.

Indeed. The system most BBC regions seem to favour is made by a firm called BDL and they call it Autoscript. I notice from their website http://www.autoscript.tv/ that they have new controllers on the market now, not the black, slightly homemade looking ones seen most commonly in BBC studios! Autocue is a trademark, the generic term being (I think) a teleprompter. However while a few people call it prompt, most people refer to it as an Autocue regardless of brand. Hardly anyone seems to call it teleprompt!

I nod in agreement

People do indeed refere to a prompter as 'autocue', however, on all the gallery monitors, vision routers etc, it's always refered to as 'Prompt'

just a legacy thing.

the promter is only 1 part of a much larger collection of computer systems, all of which needs to work with each other. It therefore makes sense to stick to just 1 prompter system.