# What is this little screen in front of the President?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525 "2012-05-10T17:32:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525/1 "2012-05-10T17:32:09Z")

</div>

I’ve seen it in other places as well, but in [this](http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/09/obamas-gay-marriage-support-riles-religious-conservatives-but-political-effects-not-yet-clear/?iref=obnetwork) picture it’s really clear to see. What is this screen used for? Is it for a teleprompter of some sort? If so, how does it work?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525/2 "2012-05-10T17:35:21Z")

</div>

Yes, it’s the TelePrompTer. It is a semi-reflective surface, and the image is reflected from a projector at it’s base.

ETA: here’s a picture of the whole gadget: [newspaper.li](http://newspaper.li/static/8b412f418f318c17858fbee49515303b.jpg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525/3 "2012-05-10T17:35:36Z")

</div>

Yes, it’s a teleprompter that reflects the text from a computer screen or similar.

[Like this.](http://catalogs.infocommiq.com/avcat/ctl1642/index.cfm?manufacturer=audio-video-design&product=1prompter15-17-presidential)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-little-screen-in-front-of-the-president/621525/4 "2012-05-10T17:37:44Z")

</div>

Thank you, you guys are awesome and wicked fast!