AutoDerp

This article is about a piece of equipment. For more information on what it is for or how to use it, try its documents wiki article.

The AutoDerp teleprompter head was conceived in Summer 2012, using some production budget. The principle behind it, was that unlike the previous NaffoCue, which relied on resting the assembly on-top of a static stool, the whole teleprompter would move with the camera head. The AutoDerp also had a few other specifications:

• Able to withstand potentially decades of abuse (although in 2014 a certain Technical Director managed to drop a box of cable on it and break it, requiring a trip to B&Q and lots of screws to fix)
• 16:9 friendly
• To use one of the numerous spare NEC 17" monitors donated by Computer science...
  • Hence able to withstand a heavy weight hung a distance from the tripod's mounting point, without it falling out
• Provide a mounting point for the cameras (rather than use two tripods - for the head & camera)
  • Hence an adjustable mount would be needed, to stop the whole thing tilting at the will of gravity.

The AutoDerp used one of the "camlink TP1" tripods acquired earlier in 2012, and featured an adjustable mounting rail. When in use, tripod's top-plate is removed, attached to the AutoDerp's camera mount point. The AutoDerp is then bolted to the plate-less tripod. When not in use, the AutoDerp could be removed, with the Tripod top-plate and camera shoe returned to the tripod. This meant we didn't have to waste a tripod permanently (2012 saw a massive shortage of tripods, as so many broke!).

This was finally finished in 2015, with some software written by Thomas Cheyney which got highly commended at that year's NaSTA