A system was produced by Brantham Electronics for Autocue to control the height of conference prompting stands. These stands support mirrored glass that is used to reflect the words from an upwardly facing monitor. The speaker reads the words reflected on the glass, but to the audience it appears as if the speaker is looking at them.

There are 84 different selectable heights for each stand and these are controlled by an electric motor. The height can be adjusted from either a local handset, a remote control unit or a remote PC.

During rehearsals, the speaker adjusts the height of the stands using the local handset to find the most comfortable position. The number corresponding to this height is then read on the remote control panel or remote PC. The stand can then be discretely adjusted to the appropriate height when the speaker approaches the lectern.

Each stand can be set for a unique address or a slave address. One remote control panel can control up to eight stands at different heights, and an unlimited number of stands can be set to be slaves to these stands. For example, if a lectern has two stands that are to be set at the same height, they would be set as a master and a slave. The remote control panel or PC sets the height of the master stand and the slave stand follows. To reduce the cabling between the stands and the remote control unit, they can be daisy chained.

The remote control panel is battery backed up so that height settings can be stored when the machine is turned off or preserved in case of a power failure.

Alternatively, the stands can be controlled directly from a PC and the required height saved with the corresponding prompting text.

The wired communications between the remote control unit and the stands is RS485. If this project were to be designed today, it is likely that this would be wireless.