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Show dictionary · Video & LED

Confidence Monitor

Also: DSM (downstage monitor) · foldback screen

A confidence monitor is a display aimed at the performers showing what they need to see: current slide, next slide, speaker notes, a countdown timer, or lyrics. It faces upstage from the downstage edge (or hangs at the back of the house) so presenters never turn around.

In practice

Corporate staging standardized the package: slides plus notes plus timer, fed from the presentation machine, with the timer under the caller’s or producer’s control. The moment a speaker sees their material without craning, pacing and eye contact improve; that is the "confidence."

Concert variants show lyrics, setlists, and click-position; teleprompters are the specialized cousin where the words scroll with an operator following the voice. Placement is negotiated real estate on the downstage edge alongside fills, lights, and cameras.

How you’ll hear it

"She wants notes on the left confidence monitor and the timer big on the right one."

Related resources

Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.