What is a confidence monitor?
A confidence monitor is a display that faces the person on stage, invisible to the audience, showing whatever helps them present: speaker notes, the current or next slide, cues, a countdown timer, or the time of day. The name is literal. It exists so the presenter never has to turn around, squint, or guess.
Confidence monitor vs teleprompter
Two stage screens with two very different jobs.
A teleprompter scrolls a script for word-for-word delivery, usually through a mirrored glass in front of the lens or the podium. A confidence monitor shows reference information: notes, slides, timers. Prompter reading is a skill; glancing at a confidence monitor is not. Most conferences and churches want the monitor, not the prompter.
What goes on a confidence monitor
Four things presenters actually glance at.
The common loads: the presenter's notes or the next slide, so they stop turning to the projection screen; a countdown timer with warning colors, so pacing is visible at a glance; the time of day, for anything scheduled to the minute; and short messages from the back of the room. Many stages run two monitors: one for content, one for the clock.
How to set one up
The browser route takes about two minutes.
The traditional route is a downstage screen fed from the production system, and church presentation software commonly drives dedicated stage displays with output configuration on the presentation machine. The lighter route is a browser: any TV, monitor, tablet, or laptop facing the stage becomes a confidence monitor by opening a web page, with no output configuration at all. Position it at the stage lip or back of house at eye line, size the text to be read at distance, and keep it out of audience sightlines.
- Pick a screen that can face the stage: a TV, monitor, tablet, or laptop.
- Open your timer's display page in that screen's browser.
- Place it at the stage lip or back of house, at the presenter's eye line.
- Size the text to read at distance, and keep it out of audience sightlines.
The timer half, with NextTime
NextTime turns any browser screen into the timing side of a confidence monitor: a fullscreen countdown that auto-scales, green, yellow, and red warning states, count-up overtime, a progress bar, time-of-day mode, and messages flashed from the operator. Unlimited screens on every plan, so the downstage monitor, the back-of-house repeater, and the green room all show the same clock.
The notes half, with NextSlide
The other half of the two-monitor rig.
For the content side, our sister app NextSlide shows presenters their notes and upcoming slide on a second screen while their PowerPoint presentation runs the projector. Timer on one screen, notes on another, nothing installed on the show machine.
Never make a presenter guess again
Any TV, tablet, or laptop with a browser becomes a confidence monitor. Free to start, nothing to install.
Confidence monitor questions
Is a confidence monitor the same as a teleprompter?
No. A teleprompter scrolls a script for verbatim delivery; a confidence monitor shows reference information like notes, slides, and timers.
Can a regular TV be a confidence monitor?
Yes. Any display the presenter can see works; with a browser-based source, a consumer TV needs nothing but a web page on screen.
What size should a confidence monitor be?
Big enough to read at a glance from the presenter's position. Auto-scaling timer text helps; for notes, test readability from stage distance before doors.
What software puts a timer on a confidence monitor?
Any stage timer with a shareable display view. NextTime does it with a browser link and no installation; production suites do it through configured outputs.