First, the bad news: FloPrompter cannot currently run on computers running Windows Vista 64-bit.

Now, the good news: We will be upgrading FloPrompter this summer to run on Vista 64-bit computers!

Why the problem?

FloPrompter uses technologies from several other software companies to work its teleprompting magic. We’ll spare you the techno-mumbo jumbo. So let’s just say that because one of those software companies doesn’t currently support Vista 64-bit, the entire program won’t work. It’s most unfortunate.

Support coming soon!

We’re delighted to share the news that the laggard software company just issued a new version that appears to work great on Vista 64-bit! So over the next few weeks, we’ll be updating all of the software components to the latest versions — especially that problematic one.

We are currently expecting to issue the next update to FloPrompter sometime in early to mid-July. We’ll keep you posted!

One of the hottest trends in K-12 education today is integrating media and broadcasting into curriculum benchmarks. Educators and administrators are learning techniques to broadcast lectures, school events, and student news programs live and from streaming sites like SchoolTube.

A consulting firm near Detroit called Sound Engineering specializes in technology consulting for educational institutions, offering dedicated training and media solutions big (wide area networks) and small (broadcast carts). They are doing some very cool cutting-edge work with schools throughout Michigan and Ohio. (We know because we have a lot of customers in those school districts!)

Christine A. is on staff at Sound Engineering and recently told us about the workshops they offer every summer for free to teachers and administrators in their client school districts. Here are a few highlights of some of the topics being covered this year:

• Student broadcasting/video news
• Safely sharing student broadcasts
• Techniques for improving live streaming broadcasts, such as extra lighting and additional cameras
• Learning how to use FloPrompter, “an easy to use and inexpensive teleprompter”
• Storyboarding with Kerpoof
• Exploring royalty-free audio sources and how music can enhance broadcasts
• Learning more about SchoolTube

To help add some excitement to the workshops, FloSpace is supplying five copies of FloPrompter, both Standard and Professional editions, to be given away to lucky attendees. We’re glad to support these workshops and excited to hear about all of the cool broadcasting and media activities students can engage in at schools now! Doesn’t it sound like fun?

Prospective customers often ask us if we can offer an educational discount on FloPrompter for either Standard or Professional editions. The answer is most certainly yes!

• Educational Pricing for Standard Edition: $24.95
• For Professional Edition: Please contact us for a quote.

Can I get an educational version of FloPrompter on a CD-ROM?

Yes for an additional fee of USD $5.00, but this option is only available with the P.O. and PayPal payment options. Even better - when you order a CD-ROM, we’ll include the license key as a file on the CD itself so you’ll never have to worry about losing it!

How quickly can I get a license key?

We offer an option for purchasing immediately with a credit card. Alternatively, if you would like to use a P.O., we’ll send you the license key(s) as soon as we receive your school’s P.O. (by email, fax, or postal mail).

Do you accept Purchase Orders?

Yes, purchase orders are fine.

How can I learn more?

Please send us an email (sales@flospace.com) for more information!

We love hearing stories about how our customers are using FloPrompter!

David Stallings, president of Texas County Line Productions, wrote us recently with some very kind words:

“Just a note to let you know that we think that Floprompter is fantastic! We recently began producing a weekly Country Music television show and have tried several prompter programs.  Because we like to include bio information on the artists we feature, it is essential that we use fairly extensive dialogue from the host of the show.  The other programs were not user-friendly, including the one which came with the prompter hardware we purchased.  Your product was easy to use and includes features which were not included on the others.  We purchased a presentation remote device at Staples and our show host is now able to control the scroll rate while actually speaking.  Yesterday, we filmed the host’s dialogue for 6 upcoming shows in only two hours without any major problems.  We downloaded your free trial version on Friday, spent only a short time learning how it works, used it yesterday at the shoot, and placed an order through Amazon this morning for the product.”

Thank you, David! We’re glad to hear that FloPrompter may help in some small way to make your video shoots smoother & easier. We’ve checked out a few episodes and they’re looking great!

We’re also delighted to hear that our product is being used by Emmy Award Nominated Actor Brad Maule. “General Hospital” was a <ahem> guilty pleasure of ours in the distant past…

How are you using FloPrompter? Please write and let us know!

Even U.S. Presidents love FloPrompter!

William and Sue Wills are actors who bring to life 32 American presidents and their wives. Everyone from Abraham and Mary Lincoln through Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and many more. We love their approach of mixing education about these great leaders and their spouses with entertainment. Anyone can benefit from such an educational message, from students of any age to adults who could use a refresher course.

Based in Winter Park, Florida, the Wills travel across the country bringing their great presentation of American presidential couples to schools, libraries and special events. The Wills also sell a line of DVDs that appear to be reasonably priced. (And they use FloPrompter to help in producing the DVDs!)

The Wills recently wrote to us and said, “We chose [FloPrompter Standard Edition] because the price was right and it had the features we were looking for.” We would like to think that Mr. Wills was dressed as George Washington, the Father of our country, when he wrote that… 

Thank you for purchasing FloPrompter, “Mr. and Mrs. President”! (Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?)

For more information about the Wills and how to book “The Presidents and Their First Ladies, Dramatically Speaking,” visit their web site:

www.presladies.com

FloSpace is always delighted to hear how our products are being used. How are you using FloPrompter? Let us know!

We always enjoy noting who is buying our product and if a business web address is provided, we like to see what that business does. Another data point we like to note is where our customers are coming from.

So today, we were delighted to note our first sale of FloPrompter to Chile!

And please keep an eye out for those free updates, Rodrigo S., because we are planning on releasing FloPrompter en Español sometime in the first half of 2009.

¡Gracias mucho!

Every now and then, one gets a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant that actually contains a good message. Check out the one that I got the other day:

“Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.”

I think this one is particularly relevant to FloSpace because or software teleprompter, FloPrompter, can help people train to be better speakers. We even have a number of professional and motivational speakers as customers!

This is why we also market to members of Toastmasters, which are excellent local clubs for learning how to become better public speakers. For regular folks who want to improve their professional speaking skills, we strongly recommend joining your local Toastmasters club — especially in the current economy! There are clubs sponsored by many large companies, as well as in most cities and towns. For more information and to find a Toastmasters club near you, visit their web site:

www.toastmasters.org

We just released the lastest update to the innovative program that turns any PC into a studio-quality teleprompter, FloSpace FloPrompter!

Version 3.0.3 offers one new feature that a number of customers had been requesting: faster scrolling.

True, the old version already was pretty fast, scrolling 1 pixel as often as every millisecond. That’s dang fast! But many customers found that they needed even faster scrolling to keep up with their actors and voice talents. We solved this issue by adding a new setting: Scroll Smoothness.

(Click the screen shot to see a larger image.)

The Scroll Smoothness feature controls how many pixels the teleprompter moves the text with each scroll action. By default, it scrolls just one pixel for maximum smoothness. You can change the setting to scroll as many as 5 pixels per tick of the scroll timer. That’s up to 5 times faster than the previous version of FloPrompter!

TIP: To achieve the best possible effect for your needs, you may wish to adjust both the Scroll Speed and Scroll Smoothness settings to achieve the desired results.

Of course, you can set a default Scroll Smoothness value in the program Options dialog, as well. And if you so choose, the Scroll Smoothness value can be saved with each file instead of the default.

Thank you to our customers for requesting this feature. FloSpace listens to your feedback, and FloPrompter keeps getting better and better with each release!

Update recommendation: If you wish. This is a “soft recommendation” to update. Only the Scroll Smoothness feature is new, so most folks won’t notice the difference.

If you decide to update your software, this is of course a free update for all FloSpace FloPrompter customers!

www.flospace.com/downloads.htm

Several customers have asked us to make the scrolling feature even faster. So we’re going to start working on adding this feature.

Currently, the highest speed setting (30) scrolls 1 pixel ever 1/1000 of a second. That’s 1,000 vertical pixels every second!

But in some film and video applications, they need it to be even faster. So we’ve started looking into how to add in even faster scrolling, but still with acceptable performance.

We have a few techniques in mind which we’re starting to look into. We expect to take a month or two to design, implement, and test this solution. But have no fear: existing FloPrompter documents will continue to work just fine if you’ve opted to save scroll speed settings in them.

When the new version of FloPrompter with faster scrolling is available, of course it will be a free update for all existing 2.xx and 3.xx customers!!