Hardware guide
Glide Gear TMP 100 — the app to run on it.
A solid, unglamorous beam-splitter rig. Your device sits underneath the angled glass and the camera looks straight through it.
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In short
The Glide Gear TMP 100 is a beam-splitter teleprompter that accepts phones and small tablets. It works with any teleprompter software that has mirror mode, including ScrollCue, which is free and runs in the browser with no download.
How the rig works
Your phone or tablet lies flat underneath a sheet of glass angled at forty-five degrees. The glass reflects the screen up towards your face while letting the camera see straight through it. You read the words and the camera sees your eyes on the lens, which is the entire point and the reason people buy these.
The reflection flips the text horizontally, so the screen underneath has to display it already flipped. That is mirror mode, and it is the one setting you cannot skip.
Settings that work through glass
Mirror mode on
Otherwise everything is backwards and you will spend twenty minutes convinced you have broken something.
Font 56 to 64 px if you are mounting a tablet
48 to 56 if it is a phone. Larger than you would use reading off a desk, because the reflection costs you contrast.
Brightness to maximum
You are only getting some of the light back. This is the most common reason people think their rig is dim.
Column narrow, around 60%, on a tablet
Keeps each line short so your eyes barely travel. On a phone, leave it at full width.
Controlling it once it is built
The device is now under a shroud and behind glass. You cannot reach it, and reaching for it mid-take is visible anyway.
Pair a phone as a remote. Speed, transport, and section jumps from wherever you are standing. If you have someone else on the shoot, they can drive it entirely and you never touch a control.
Or skip the glass
Worth saying, since you may not have bought one yet. If you are recording on a computer, a camera-behind-script setup renders your own camera feed behind the words, which achieves the same eye-line effect in software and costs nothing. Plenty of people buy a rig, use it twice, and go back to that. Try the free version before you commit to carrying glass around.
Frequently asked questions
What app works with the Glide Gear TMP 100?
Any teleprompter with mirror mode. ScrollCue is free, runs in the browser, and works with any brand of beam-splitter.
Why does my text appear backwards?
Mirror mode is off. The glass flips the reflection, so the screen has to display the text pre-flipped.
The display looks dim through the glass. What do I do?
Turn the device brightness to maximum and increase the font size. A beam-splitter only reflects part of the light back at you.
Do I actually need a glass rig?
Only if you want true on-axis eye contact. A camera-behind-script setup gets you most of the way in software, for free. Try that first.