Room , Oval Office , Rose Garden , on Air Force One and Air Force Two and in the president ’ s helicopter . You never know where and when he ’ s going to have to speak and he ’ d spend far too much time memorizing everything every time .”
Tanner says what he ’ s “ proudest of , besides the success of the TeleStepper , is that it ’ s been designed and manufactured in Nevada City .” Tanner , who drives to his office each morning from Loomis — he ’ s pretty insistent on most of his employees working on-site rather than at home — had been in the medical device business before getting “ a desperate call ” from his brother , Neil . He operated teleprompters for , among other boldface names , former first lady , United States senator and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton , and owned a film production company . He was producing a live event at George Lucas ’ s Skywalker Ranch at which two successively scheduled speakers would be using the same teleprompter — but had a serious height difference .
“ The man was about 6 ’ 5 and the woman barely five feet tall ,” Thom Tanner says , chuckling at the memory — but not at the order to immediately create a teleprompter that could “ almost intuitively adjust its height ” to accommodate each presenter . The TeleStepper was born — and noticed by media industry tech pros , who made calls and contacts on behalf of the product and its inventors .
“ This is when the White House came calling ,” Tanner says . “ They ordered 100 of them .” Tanner ’ s main competitor , a British software manufacturer called Autocue , had a similar product but was far more expensive . “ Theirs went for $ 23,500 ,” he says , “ whereas ours retailed for $ 6,995 .” Even so , he adds with a smile , “ This was the White House we were selling to . We gave them a deal .”
Asked to assess the leap he ’ s made from creating medical devices to being in show business , Tanner says ( in what happens to be a perfect radio newscaster voice , should he ever want to make another leap ), “ I actually don ’ t see the industries as that unalike . As engineers , we were always fixated on and devoted to quality . This seems to be a natural progression .”
The original teleprompter represented a major leap from three-ring binder notebooks , pocket index cards and postersize cue cards to make it seem as though those famous talking heads — whether newscasters , politicos or managing partners — were speaking to you and only you . In fact , the teleprompter was so magical that for years , news anchors kept visible spiral notebooks on their anchor desks , glancing down at them from time to time and turning the pages of the scripts they contained to offset the notion that they ’ d memorized the stories they were reporting .
Teleprompters also allow game-show hosts to tape a week ’ s worth of programs in about a day and a half and soap opera actors to be able to get through pages of often complicated story exposition on a daily basis .
Tanner ’ s product adjusts for a speaker ’ s height and can also be folded up and put away rapidly so that the two TeleSteppers that flank the speaker — they look like see-through music stands — aren ’ t a visual impediment for the camera operators . “ When the writtenspeech part is over and the president takes questions , he doesn ’ t need to be scripted ,” Tanner says .
The TeleStepper is now being used in several countries , according to its coinventor — including New Zealand , Australia and throughout Europe . “ The G-7 nations are a target for us ,” Tanner says . He says it pleases him that the British
Oprah Winfrey delivers her commencement speech to Colorado College using the TeleStepper teleprompter , made in Nevada City .
PHOTO BY BOB SMALLEY / COURTESY OF THOM TANNER
Parliament has recently asked him for a quote as well , since the aforementioned Autocue is an English company .
Coming up next is TelePresenter ’ s patented TeloMic , an adjustable podiumplanted microphone and MicMover , an audio enhancer that can move up and down 24 inches , depending on the speaker ’ s height or performance needs . Tanner says he half regrets one aspect of the TeleStepper deal with the White House . When he went to sell newer models , “ They told me they really liked the ones they had , that they were holding up just great , that the quality was just what they needed and that they planned to use them for at least the next 10 years .” He laughs . “ I guess we really shot ourselves in the foot on that deal .”
Ed Goldman writes a thrice-weekly column , The Goldman State , for his website goldmanstate . com .
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August 2022 | comstocksmag . com 97