An Autocue is a machine that shows a speaker the words they must say while they are talking in public, especially on television. The words scroll in front of the camera, so the newsreader can look at you and still read the script. It was originally a trademark; in British television people still say Autocue the way some people say Hoover for a vacuum. In American English the everyday word is teleprompter. If the machine fails, you suddenly have to speak from memory — which is why presenters practise looking calm.