Pulsar gives you a live picture of what your pipeline is doing. The Pipeline Flow viewer is a node graph of every row, output and Orbit client, with edges that glow green while frames move — your everyday "is it flowing?" view.
The Pipeline Flow viewer
A separate, resizable window showing a live, read-only graph of your whole setup: each row's source → Video Processor → outputs / Orbit, with animated edges that turn green while frames are moving. Hover any node or edge for full specs, preview Orbit feeds, and start/stop outputs right from the graph.
How to open it
Click the Pipeline Flow button at the bottom-left of the footer (the three-connected-nodes glyph). It opens the window, or focuses it if already open.
The glyph tints green when at least one row is pushing frames, grey when nothing is — a quick "are we live?" check without even opening the window.
Reading the graph
Header read-out:
N rows · M flowing— how many rows exist and how many are moving frames.Edge colours (the marching ants):
Green, animated — flowing, frames moving.
Amber — connecting.
Grey — idle, no frames.
Red — error.
fps · bitrate labels ride on the slot edges; encoder chips (e.g.
12 Mb · h264) sit on the processing edges.Spec tooltips: hover any node or edge for codec, bitrate, fps, RTT, resolution and connection status.
Capability warnings: an amber chip on a source or output flags a silent degradation (e.g. NDI 8-bit downconvert, or DeckLink HDR needing loopback to verify) — hover the node for the full explanation.
Privacy: the graph never shows SRT URLs, hosts/IPs, passphrase values (a set passphrase shows only set ✓), or Orbit access codes.
Confirm frames are flowing end-to-end
Open the Pipeline Flow window.
Read the header count:
N rows · M flowing.Scan the edges — green = moving, amber = connecting, grey = idle, red = error.
Hover a slot edge for live fps · bitrate; hover any node for its full spec.
Preview a specific Orbit feed
Open the Pipeline Flow window.
Hover the row's Orbit node (the amber mark) — a live 16:9 video popover appears beside it.
Move the pointer away to close the preview.
Optional: open Graph filters (funnel) and turn on Video in Orbit nodes to keep players embedded instead of only on hover.
See Orbit Streaming for how Orbit delivery works.
Start or stop one output
Open the Pipeline Flow window.
Find the output-slot node for the row.
Click the green play to start, or the red stop to stop. (Same as the main window's per-output buttons.)
The processing edge turns green within a second or two once fps settles.
See Outputs: SRT & NDI for output configuration.
Reduce clutter on a busy rig
Click the funnel (Graph filters) button in the Flow header.
Set Pipeline focus to Orbit or Outputs to drop irrelevant columns.
Turn on Hide orbit viewers and/or Live rows only.
Turn on Hide edge stats to drop the fps/bitrate labels.
Filters persist between sessions, and the funnel turns amber whenever a filter is active so you always know you're on a filtered view.
Check or change the global timecode
Click the cog on the Global Timecode node (the cyan clock card above the lanes).
Choose the Global TC Mode: Machine clock / NTP / Free-run / Tentacle Sync (BLE).
Set the Project FPS, and the NTP server or Free-run Start TC if those modes are selected.
Click Set all rows Global to apply it to every row, then Close.
Tentacle Sync (BLE) needs Bluetooth pairing done in the main window's TC control centre — the Flow panel only links there.
Manage who can see which row (Orbit access)
Open the Pipeline Flow window with Orbit running and clients connected.
Find the connected-client node on the far right.
Click a letter chip to grant or remove that client's permission for that row (blue = permitted, ghost = not).
Drag chips to reorder the rows for that viewer.
Add a source from the graph
Click the floating blue + at the bottom-right to open the Add source picker (GEN / SRT / NDI / EXT / FILE / Screen / UE), then create the row. (FILE and UE sources must first be turned on in Settings → Beta Features.)
See Introduction & Core Concepts for the source types.
Running a benchmark
The Pipeline Benchmark is a separate diagnostic tool that exercises your pipeline and reports per-case verdicts. Because each run snapshots, deletes and restores all your rows, never run it during a live broadcast. It is fully documented in Pipeline Benchmark.
While a benchmark is running you can open the Pipeline Flow window to watch the Benchmark Bot node and per-case verdicts. The Flow window switches to a fixed bench view and the filters button is disabled until the run ends.
Tips & gotchas
Idle (grey) ≠ broken. The graph shows delivery, not readiness. An Orbit-enabled but unwatched row shows grey even though the source is feeding Orbit. A configured-but-unstarted SRT-in row is also correctly grey until an output starts.
Marching ants lag the stream slightly. fps settles a second or two after a stream starts, so the green animation begins a beat after the stream actually does.
A streaming slot can't be hidden. Stop the output first, then hide the slot.
Pipeline Flow is read-only when PIN-locked. The window still opens and shows live state, but start/stop, cogs, the Add-source button, access-chip edits and hover preview are all disabled.
Capability warning chips matter. An amber chip on a source/output flags a silent degradation — hover the node to read the full explanation.
Related pages
Introduction & Core Concepts — the header and footer this page refers to
Orbit Streaming — Orbit delivery and viewers
Outputs: SRT & NDI — output slots
Encoding, Bitrate & Color — the encoder behind the chip
Pipeline Benchmark — the separate diagnostic tool
Security & PIN Lock — read-only locked mode
Settings & Configuration — Beta Features
Troubleshooting