You have watched a script jump while the talent was reading it.
One wrong click, one second operator, one edit that landed live. The Prompter puts the talent-facing script on a second display and makes every dangerous move a deliberate one — armed from the cue on deck, and never moved by accident.
What cannot happen by accident
- Arming never moves the talent displayArm and take are separate acts. Arming a section stages it on the operator's side; nothing changes in front of the talent until the take. You can get ready without showing your hand.
- Armed from the on-deck cueThe script arms from the cue that is on deck in the rundown, rather than being driven as a separate machine — so the prompter and the caller are reading the same show.
- Edit and Operate are a hard mode switchOperate renders no editor at all. A stray keystroke during the show cannot rewrite a line, because there is no field on screen for it to land in.
- Air mode has to be earnedGoing to air runs through a readiness checklist — the script version loaded, the arm path proven, the talent display checked in. Going early is still possible, but the override has to be typed. It is a decision, not a slip.
- One driver seatOne person drives the prompter at a time, enforced by row-level security in the database — not by hiding the buttons. A second well-meaning operator cannot move the script under the talent.
A second display, not a hardware rig
The talent display is a second browser display that checks in on its own — the readiness checklist will tell you when it has not. There is no scroll hardware, no foot pedal driver, and no camera-hood glass in the box; you bring the screen and the show brings the script.
It lives with Show Ops: the same rundown the caller is running is where the prompter arms from, so nobody is keeping two orders of the show in step by hand.
Put a script in front of talent that cannot be startled.
Run it on your next rehearsal. The checklist will tell you when you are ready — and make you type it when you decide you are ready anyway.