If you are an on-camera talent, you know how hard it can be to memorize lines or read small letters on a teleprompter. If you can master the skill of using an ear prompter, you can greatly increase your efficiency and make yourself look like a real pro when the camera is rolling. There are a few choices to be made when choosing an ear prompter, below are a few tips on how to purchase an ear prompter...

Recorder: It is best to choose a recorder with a hard drive, rather than a mini-cassette tape. The last thing you want to be doing on camera is rewinding and fast forwarding to find your dialogue. The Olympus V90 is a popular choice among professional on camera hosts and spokespeople.

Ear Piece: You can buy ear pieces that fit into both ears along with a wire that will run up your back and be unseen by the camera. Some companies, like Audio Implements out of Wisconsin offer ear pieces molded exactly to your ear. They will mail you a molding kit and you make a mold of your ear and mail it back to them, within a few weeks you will have your personal ear piece made just for you! (You can visit their website at audioimplements.com )

Connectivity: When ordering the wire that will connect your ear piece to your recorder, be sure and specify which connection you need. There are the larger ones like those that fit in a Walkman or the smaller ones like the connections that fit into cell phones and mp3 players. The Olympus V90 uses the smaller one, which is also known as a "sub-mini".