Crash Course: Part 4 of 6

How to use PromptDog with your iPad

iPads make a great external monitor for your teleprompter setup

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Many of our customers gravitate to PromptDog because it runs as a native desktop application on both Windows and Mac. They don’t like apps that run on a tablet or a phone.

I received an email recently from Nick at Atlanta Media that captures this sentiment perfectly. Nick said:

I really like that you can run it on an actual computer - the other apps we have purchased are terrible because they involve Bluetooth, phones and iTunes junk that Apple changes constantly. Thank you for making a product that runs correctly.

Crash Course Links


That said, many people still want to take advantage of their iPad to display PromptDog output. For those without dedicated teleprompter hardware, an iPad is easy to mount above, below or beside their camera.

teleprompter setup option - iPad above camera

Others want to use one of several affordable hardware options now available which are specifically designed to use an iPad for through-the-lens prompting.

professional iPad teleprompter hardware

In the remainder of this short lesson, I’ll walk you through how to send the output from PromptDog to your iPad using the very affordable Duet Display and get prompting in just a few minutes.

Getting connected

Duet Display is an iOS app that allows your iPad to function as a second screen for your Mac or Windows PC using a wired connection. (Other apps available offer WiFi connections, but none performed as well as Duet in our testing).

Getting started is straightforward:

1

Modify your computer display settings to utilize a second monitor:

Windows: Settings > System > Display > Select secondary display > Extend desktop to this display

(For more details, click here).

Mac: System preferences > Display > Arrangements > Uncheck ‘Mirror Displays’

(For more details, click here).

2

Download and install the free Duet app for your Windows or Mac desktop/laptop.

3

Purchase the Duet app for iOS via iTunes and install on your iPad.

4

Use your regular iPad charging cable to connect the iPad to a USB port on your computer.

Once the apps are installed on both devices, getting connected is simply a matter of making sure the apps are running and connecting the two with the USB cable. Duet will automatically detect the connection and begin displaying the video signal being sent to the external display.

System requirements

Duet runs on iPad version 2 or later. The desktop app requires macOS 10.9 on the Mac (10.14.2 for hardware accelerated performance) or Windows 7+ on a PC.

A Windows update to add hardware acceleration is apparently imminent.

You can find their official documentation here

Extending the cable

The wired connection employed by Duet provides great performance. Any lag is minor and often imperceptible. The only drawback is that the default cable supplied with your iPad will usually not be long enough for our purpose unless you position your laptop or desktop computer very close to the camera.

However, this is easy enough to fix using a cheap male-to-female USB extension cable.

Pro Tip: USB is supposedly good for up to 15 feet. For longer distances, use a Cat5 USB extender (Cat5 is the same cable you use for ethernet networking).

USB to ethernet adapter

That way, you can have your laptop handy to your presentation position (ie at least 10-12 feet away from the camera) if you are working alone.

Finally

Okay, I hope this helps. Employing an iPad as your display monitor is definitely doable and offers an affordable alternative to purchasing all-in-one professional teleprompter hardware.

In part 5 of this series, I unpack a script formula you can use to introduce yourself or your client to a cold audience.

This formula is so reliably effective that even the biggest ad agencies use it as their go-to game plan, yet costs nothing to execute.

You do not want to miss this one!


Author: Gary Elley