Behind the scenes of In Touch Ministries' weekly television program In Touch With Dr. Charles Stanley, production has become much more comfortable and efficient thanks to the addition of teleprompters from Autoscript, the world's leading teleprompting company and a Vitec Group brand. An easy-to-use solution for users and engineers alike, Autoscript LED 19 +TFT+ (LED19TFT) teleprompters have enabled In Touch to clearly convey important messaging despite bright lights, distance and other common challenges faced on a sound stage.

 

The goal of In Touch Ministries, the non-profit ministry founded by Dr. Charles Stanley, senior pastor of First Baptist Atlanta, is to lead people worldwide into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and strengthen the local church. While Dr. Stanley's outreach began as a local broadcast in Atlanta, today the weekly television and radio broadcasts of In Touch With Dr. Charles Stanley can be seen and heard domestically and internationally on nearly 1,800 radio and television outlets in more than 50 languages. 

 

"Autoscript has made life much easier for Dr. Stanley when he is reading viewer emails or making announcements," says Gary Longenecker, production manager, In Touch Ministries. "Surrounded by blinding studio lights and often positioned 12 to 15-feet away from the unit to help maximize our studio space, the brightness and size of the LED19TFT monitors make this achievable, enabling him to film informational segments with comfort and ease."

 

Used with Sony HDC 1500 high definition cameras, Vinten Vector 70 Pan Heads and Vinten Quartz pedestals, the LED19TFT systems assist Dr. Stanley with the informational studio portion of his television show as well as reading viewer emails during the "Ask Dr. Stanley" segment. "The difference between the Autoscript unit and the competitor product we had previously was so pronounced that Dr. Stanley asked us to purchase another so that both prompters we used were Autoscript's 19-inch systems," adds Longenecker. The teleprompter systems typically stay with the pan heads and pedestals, however from time to time they are placed on a Panther Dolly during concerts and special projects. 

 

Featuring 1,000 nits of brightness, the LED19TFT utilizes the latest in Autoscript's illumination technology, the TFT (thin-film transistor) LED system, offering instant warm-up to full brightness. The superior light distribution of Autoscript's LED TFT-Plus delivers higher contrast levels and an overall picture quality, while using less power than existing TFTs. The LED19TFT includes the Eco +Plus+ feature that saves power when no active video is present, a preset LCM (Low Consumption Modes) feature for use with camera utility power-outlets, built-in dimmable Tally Light with Opto Sensor input and repeat output, illuminated control panel for easy visibility in dark studio conditions and optional HD-SDI input.

 

Overall, Longenecker describes the system as intuitive-for the production team and talent. "Rugged and ergonomic, the teleprompters are very easy to assemble, disassemble and are well designed and thought out," he says. "I also love having the tally integrated into the front of the prompters as it helps keep filming streamlined."

 

In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley began in 1972, as a half-hour program called The Chapel Hour on a local Atlanta-area television station. After joining The Christian Broadcasting Network, a satellite distribution network to cable systems, the broadcast grew from 16,000 Atlanta viewers to a nationwide audience in one week. In Touch programs penetrated almost every major market in the United States during the 1980's, reaching more than one-million households with the message of Christ's sufficiency for life's demands. Today, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley can be heard around the world via radio and television broadcasts, the handheld In Touch Messenger and the ministries Web site, www.InTouch.org.