Podium vs Lectern: Difference and Comparison

To showcase your ability is a dream come true for anyone. It could be a lecture or a sports performance that can help us achieve our goal.

A celebration is a must when we achieve what we have spent years. In all the glory and fun of the moment, we tend to forget some unique places that help us showcase our position.

A lectern helps us deliver our speeches; it is the same piece of furniture from where we get the announcement of the significant achievement.

Key Takeaways

1. A podium is a platform to elevate a speaker, while a lectern is a stand or desk to hold notes or a script during a speech.
2. Podiums provide greater visibility for speakers, while lecterns help speakers stay organized and focused on their content.
3. Both items, such as conferences and lectures, are commonly used in public speaking situations.

Podium vs Lectern

The difference between a podium and a lectern is that a lectern is a piece of furniture that has a slanting surface and supports a mike for announcements,. In contrast, a podium is a piece of furniture that is used to raise anything to a certain height. A lectern and a podium are two different pieces of furniture with other features. During medal distribution in an Olympic event, winners stand on a piece of furniture: a podium.

A podium is a piece of furniture you stand on to receive a medal for your outstanding performance in a sports event.

Its use, however, is not limited to a sports event as it can be used for other purposes. It can also be made of concrete, as in the case of a building. In general, it finds its use to raise people or things to a certain height.

A lectern is a piece of furniture used to hold a mike for a speaker. It is also referred to as a reading desk. It has a slanting surface that supports the book or the document to be read.

A lectern is used to deliver speeches and to make announcements. It is fixed on a position and attached to some support. A platform is very different from a podium, although these words are used interchangeably.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Podium	Lectern
Usage	It is used to raise people or things to a certain height.	It is used to deliver a speech or read out something.
Mobility	It can be moved.	It is immovable as it is fixed.
Purpose	It has a variety of purposes.	It is used for academic purposes mostly.
Definition	It is a structure that helps people or things to rise to a certain height.	It is a piece of furniture used to deliver a speech or make announcements.
Feature	It has no mike.	It is fitted with a mike to speak.

What is Podium?

Most sporting events honour their winners with medals. All the winners stand on a stand to raise the winners to a certain height; the air is called a podium.

It can be used to raise anything to a certain height. Podiums can also be at the base on which a house stands. It could be made of wood or concrete based on its use.

There is a very famous form of building made of wood called podium buildings. Podium buildings are so-called because the wooden structure stands on a concrete podium.

Maison Carree, a famous Roman temple, stands on a podium. The lower portion of the temple is great support built to a certain height on which the entire temple stands.

In the Olympics, it was first used in the year of 1932. It was also used for the first time in 1930 in the commonwealth games (British Empire Games).

In the Olympics, the gold medal winner stands in the middle of the podium, slightly higher than the height at which the other two participants stand.

It is also used in motorsports to honour the winners. The podium structure is the same as that of the Olympic podium.

In some sporting events, such as F-1, the winners stand on the podium with one team member.

What is Lectern?

A lectern is a piece of furniture that you see in a lecture hall or an announcement podium. In ancient times it was explicitly used as a reading desk.

A podium has a slightly slanting surface meant to hold books or paper to read from. Modern Lecterns have a mike on them that helps people use it to make announcements.

It is a fixed structure lying on some support. It is misunderstood as a podium.

Lecterns are an integral part of the academic world. It can be seen in every class of a higher-education institute. Lecterns in such an environment are fitted with a mike and computers.

It can also be fitted with recording systems to record lectures. It is fixed in one place from where the teacher or professor speaks.

Apart from academic usage, it can be found in different places such as churches. A lectern holds the bible in place, and lessons are read from there.

Lecterns are adorned pieces of furniture exclusively made of wood. It can be confused with a pulpit which is used for sermons. Pulpits can, however, be distinguished from lecterns as lecterns are smaller in size.

Main Differences Between Podium and Lectern

1. A podium is a structure used to raise people or things to a given height, whereas a lectern is a piece of furniture used for speeches.
2. A podium could be very large, as in the case of a building, whereas a lectern is a small structure.
3. Depending on their use, podiums could be made of concrete or wood, whereas a lectern is made of wood.
4. A podium is used in the Olympics to honour the winners with their medals, whereas a lectern is used to give speeches and read out a piece of information to the masses.
5. Podiums are not fitted with mike or recording systems, whereas lecterns are fitted with mike and recording systems.

References

1. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-77234-9_6
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01463376109385178