Granite Bay, CA- June 8, 2020- PresenterTek, Inc., a California manufacturer of electro-mechanical speaking products announced their partnership with the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) in Washington, DC. In doing so, they become an exclusive supplier of robotic teleprompting equipment to the White House, relied upon by President Biden and former president Trump.

Thom Tanner, CEO of PresenterTek spoke after President Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress, April 28. “The White House Communications team approached us about their need for an extremely reliable but portable rise-and-fall teleprompting system that could be used anywhere the Commander-in-Chief and his Vice-Commander required prompted speech.”

The design of PresenterTek’s TeleStepper robotic teleprompter allows special beam splitter mirrors to remotely match a speaker’s unique height, then quickly be hidden from sight when no longer required. Adds Tanner, “Our product is critical for the White House because once a speech concludes, all teleprompting equipment must immediately disappear for official photography or media question-and-answer sessions.”

The TeleStepper was designed in 2016 by engineers Thom Tanner and Steve McNerney who saw the need for an automatically adjustable robotic teleprompter. Their first prototype won praise from the director of Lucasfilm’s special effects department in Marin County, and was demonstrated to the WHCA shortly thereafter. Says Tanner, “We’re proud to develop products where machined components and labor are sourced in Northern California. One of our goals is to drive a reshoring movement within the United States.”

PresenterTek assists corporate, collegiate and political speakers worldwide. In 2018, TeleStepper was also selected as the official supplier to Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook.

The startup has since grown, establishing a manufacturing facility in Nevada City, CA.