RTFM – nothing could be truer.
Over the last week or so, whilst we lost the internet and then power, I took the opportunity to revamp the room I call “my studio” to make it more friendly to create videos specifically.
My Studio
For a recap, I use a combination of RØDECASTER Pro II, Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro. RØDECASTER Video, Sennheiser Wireless Profile Mics, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and a PC for these and edit in DaVinci Resolve.
To aid in reading scripts, I have been using an Elgato Prompter teleprompter which makes life SO much easier. (See review here)
The new setup however means I have turned everything around 180° so can no longer reach the PC to start and stop the teleprompter. Using my Gigabyte Aero laptop on a small table next to me proved fruitless as the teleprompter gets its video signal from a USB-C connection, and the Aero doesn’t support this for some unknown (and baffling) reason.
I figured there had to be some way of still using the Elgato Prompter with the new setup without upgrading to a more sophisticated unit that uses a foot switch or some other device to start / stop the scrolling.
Voice Control
In moving everything around, by chance I had dug up the manual for the Prompter, and when I put it on the desk, it just happened to fall open at a page, and two words caught my eye – “Voice Control”.
Well paint me green and call me a bus …if you have a suitably spec’d PC or Mac you can actually use voice control!
Here’s how it works.
In conjunction with an NVIDIA GTX2600 or better GPU, and setting up the Elgato camera software correctly, as you read the script, the Prompter will scroll the text along with your voice. You stop reading and it stops scrolling. Start reading and it starts scrolling in time with you, word for word.
Perfect for what I needed!
The configuration of the Elgato software was straightforward, but on first attempt, the scrolling just didn’t happen and had to dig into the bowels of the GPU to tweak a few things such as CUDA. All the info was on the Elgato support website, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist thankfully.
Once that was done and a quick reboot, and presto!
Simply brilliant! You can see it in operation below.