Teleprompter

#Quick Start

1. Open the Teleprompter panel in the controller.
2. Click Add teleprompter (or Upload .txt or .md to start from a file).
3. Click the script title to open the editor and write your content.
4. Pick a session from the dropdown — the teleprompter auto-attaches to that session's lifecycle.
5. Start the session. The script begins scrolling on the speaker screen automatically.

#The Notion-style Script Editor

The teleprompter editor is not a textarea — it's a block editor inspired by Notion. Each line is its own block; formatting lives inline within blocks; sections are first-class.

#Slash menu (/)

Type / at the start of any line to open the insert menu:

#Inline format toolbar

Select a run of text and the inline toolbar appears with:

#Section markers

Sections drive the section badge that appears at the top of the speaker view as the speaker crosses into a new segment. The marker syntax:

## Section · Welcome
Friends, before we begin —
welcome to those joining us for the first time.

## Section · Reading
For God so loved the world…

You can write ## Section · Name, ## Welcome, or just ## Name — the editor parses heading-level markers and surfaces the label in the badge.

#Per-line autosave

Every keystroke saves with a short debounce. Default behavior:

• Editing while paused: 500 ms debounce
• Editing while playing: 100 ms debounce (live edits land on the speaker view almost instantly)

Close the tab, kill the laptop, hand off to another operator — the script is on the server.

#Upload a file

Two upload paths:

• Empty-state upload — when no teleprompters exist yet, the panel shows an Upload .txt or .md button. Picking a file creates a new teleprompter populated with the file contents and uses the filename (without extension) as the title.
• Per-card upload — each script card has an Upload Script action in its menu that replaces the script text with the file contents.

Supported formats: .txt, .md, .text. Maximum file size: 50 KB of text.

#Linking to Sessions & Auto-Play

The teleprompter inherits the session's lifecycle, so you don't have to start it separately.

#How attach + play works

1. Pick a session in the script's session dropdown.
2. The script is now attached to that session — visible in the panel header as a link icon on the card.
3. When the session starts, the script's is_visible and is_playing both flip to true. The speaker view shows the script and starts scrolling.
4. When the session pauses, is_playing flips to false. The script stays visible but freezes mid-scroll — the speaker still sees their place.
5. When the session stops, both flags flip to false. The script panel hides and resets to position 0.

#Multiple teleprompters per event

Each session can carry its own teleprompter. As the rundown advances, the speaker view auto-switches to the next session's script — sermon notes, then worship lyrics, then announcements, in order. No manual cue required.

#Plan limits

Free tier ships with one teleprompter per event. Limits scale with your plan tier:

• See Compare plans for current per-tier teleprompter quotas.
• When you hit the cap, the Add teleprompter button in the panel header swaps to an Upgrade for more pill that links to /dashboard/billing.

#Playback Controls

Per-card controls on the controller:

#Keyboard shortcuts

When the controller is focused:

See the full list at Keyboard shortcuts.

#Pacing Modes — true-WPM vs constant

Pacing controls how the per-line scroll duration is computed.

#true_wpm (default, recommended)

Every line gets a dwell time proportional to its actual word count. A 12-word line dwells twice as long as a 6-word line at the same WPM setting. Headers and sparse lines fly by; dense paragraphs get the time they need.

duration_seconds = (line_word_count / pace_wpm) × 60

This is what professional teleprompters do. It's the default for all new teleprompters.

#constant (legacy)

Every line gets the same duration regardless of length. This is the old behavior and is kept for users who built their pacing around it. Switch via Settings → Playback → Pacing mode.

#Speaker View — How It Renders

The speaker view is a vertically scrolling script with a fixed cue indicator marking the current reading line.

#Line states

• Current line — full opacity, your chosen current_line_color, with optional karaoke-style progress fill animating across it
• Previous lines — previous_line_color (default mid-grey), opacity fades by distance (1 line back: 70%, 2 lines: 40%, 3+: 20%)
• Upcoming lines — unread_line_color (default mid-grey), same opacity fade by distance

Font sizes scale responsively to the viewport.

#Manual scroll override

Manual scroll is enabled by default. The speaker can flick the script with their finger or scroll wheel without un-pausing the timer. After a configurable resume delay (default 5 s of no input), the cue catches up and resumes auto-scroll from where the speaker left off.

To disable: Settings → Manual Scroll → Manual scroll enabled (off).

#All Display Settings

Every teleprompter has its own settings. Open the gear icon on any card to see all 35+ options grouped into 5 tabs.

#Script tab

Editor pane for the script text itself plus title, notes, and labels. See The Notion-style Script Editor above.

#Playback tab

#Lines tab — typography & current-line styling

#Cue tab — the indicator that marks the current line

#Overlays tab — badge, top progress bar, chrome dim

#Mirror Mode for Glass Teleprompters

Professional teleprompters use a sheet of glass angled in front of the camera. The speaker reads text reflected in the glass while looking directly at the audience (or camera). Because the glass reflects the image, the text needs to be mirrored horizontally so it reads correctly.

When generating the speaker screen link, set the Mirror option in Link Options:

#Hardware Controllers & API

Drive the teleprompter from external hardware via the public /v1/ REST API:

• Bitfocus Companion / Stream Deck — bind play / pause / scrub / jump-to-section to physical buttons
• vMix, OBS, QLab — fire HTTP requests on cue
• Custom scripts — every action is a single HTTP call

See the API documentation for the full endpoint list and authentication.

#Multi-Device Sync

Every connected speaker view stays in lockstep. Open the same shared link on a confidence monitor, an iPad, and a laptop — they all show the same script, same cue position, same timing. Late-joining devices receive the full state on connect and catch up instantly.

This is the same multi-link sync architecture used by sessions and timers. See Live connections for the full sync model.

#Multi-Script Management

#Selection mode

Toggle selection mode in the panel header to show checkboxes on each card for bulk operations:

• Reset positions — Reset all selected scripts to 0%
• Delete — Delete all selected scripts
• Bulk relabel — Apply a label to every selected script

#Status indicators

• Active count — header pill shows how many scripts are currently visible
• Card color — red background when playing, dark grey when paused or stopped
• Link icon — indicates the script is attached to a session

#Stale detection

If a script is marked as playing but no position updates land for 10 seconds, a yellow warning appears on the speaker screen: "No controller connected." The Stop button on the card stays available so you can clear the stale state without un-attaching.

#Auto-Pause on Messages

The teleprompter automatically pauses when you send a message to the speaker screen, so the announcement doesn't overlap with the script. Scrolling resumes when the message is dismissed.

#How sync works under the hood

Live edits to script text use a short debounce to keep typing responsive. Scroll position broadcasts every 2% change to minimize network traffic without losing sync between viewers. Setting changes broadcast immediately and persist via the Animal Pattern (REST → broadcast → DB write with retry) so every connected client converges to the same state in under a second.