from the DIY corner: iPad as prompter

A prompter for under 20$! … okay, under 300$, not every household owns an iPad..... 



No, we (my kids at school and me) are not the first wo came up with the idea, using an iPad as a prompter. And there are perhaps better descriptions, how and why and where to accomplish that, but this is our story.




In short:
We use my iPad_mini, saw a piece of plywood into size, applied some smaller ledges to ‚fix‘ the iPad.




Next, as mentioned in many tutorials, we use a wooden picture frame, take out the back-plate and assemble it with Velcro strips: it allows us to fix the frame in 45°, and allows to disassemble the frame from the plate, for transport for example.




Velcro is in use to ‚welder’ the whole construction to our <cough> my rig: two stripes on the shoulder pad, two 90° turned to the bottom of the prompter - unbelievable strong connection! And you can still use the shoulder pad…




software? we actually use google.docs to create a ‚presentation‘. And we use a cheap BluTooth connected keyboard to switch charts.




What to improve for the next generation?
Stability. On a tripod ok, but ‚free‘… no way. Software? The senseis of this board recommended PrompterPro, I’ll have a look at it. The workaround, using a google-drive-presentation is a bit … weird, but fully functional. Size? The iPad mini isn’t meant to be read from a distance of 4-5meters… some parents offered their iPad1, they don’t need anymore …

ok, what we spent:
4€ for the black cloth, 3€ for plywood & ledges, 5€ for the picture frame, 4€ for Velcros; a ‚clicker‘, we use a BuTooth keyboard… iPad and shoulder pad, the whole rig anyhow, can be found ‚in any household‘… so not be calculated (same as tools, glues, color, time, my gastric mucosa).

And we need some GaffaTape in black - a white iPad is 2nd choice for a construction like this.

A nice project for the weekend, asks for average DIY skills, and has its fences and trenches....

Nice.

Nicely done!

I built something similar a couple of years ago and it worked well. I then updated to this ready-built iPad based prompter frame.

www.prompt-it.com.au/en/

My original used plain glass but switching to real beam splitter glass was a huge improvement.

For software I can't recommend Teleprompt+ highly enough. Easy to use, easy to remote control with anything from a bluetooth keyboard to your iPhone and it has proven to be the most reliable of the half dozen prompting apps I own.

jeff_kirkland wrote: Nicely done!….

Thanks for the flowers, but photos are shopped... :blink:
What I learned years ago: there's no mess of self-welded stuff which doesn't look nicely after treated with a can of color, preferred black or, nowadays called "space" grey << who came up with this nonsense? What is grey about space??? ... anhow.

jeff_kirkland wrote: … I then updated to this ready-built iPad based prompter frame. ….

wow, 200€ - that's a bit above budget of our school projects <voice from other room>"We have a budget?!" And it shows me the hidden, but enormous developments some materials had, the last decades - would you ever came up with the idea to fix glas (and the weight of the hood) in a little gap? Or the velcro tape I used, for a flexible, tough but detachable solution? feels like, why don't they use it for fixing wheels to race-cars?

Aside super-glue my new favorite in my tool-box ...

Looks exellent, smart design, thanks, Jeff, for sharing!