# Beam Essentials UI

The Essentials UI is a simplified operating view for MK.IO Beam devices, designed for day to day monitoring and channel control. Use it to check channel health at a glance, review active alarms, and create new channels without configuring the underlying services directly.

You can access a device's Essentials UI locally at the device address, or remotely through MK.IO. For remote access, see [Access the remote device UI](/mkio/how-to/managing-edge-devices/access-the-remote-device-ui).

> **Warning:** The **MK.IO Beam Essentials UI** requires Beam version `1.12.0` or higher, and is only available for new customers or fresh Beam ISO installations. The Essentials UI supports channel creation for contribution, streaming, and distribution, alongside a monitoring dashboard. For reception and gateway use cases, please see the advanced guide pages. Additional functionality will be introduced in upcoming software updates.

The Essentials UI also introduces the **Channels API**. This API presents everything the device is doing as a number of _channels_, where one channel can cover the input, the processing, and the output of a single service. It is the API behind the Beam Essentials UI, and it runs on the device.

For more information and user guides see: [Channels API guides](/api-guides/how-to/channels/)

## Essentials and Advanced views

The device UI is split into two views, available from a toggle in the top right corner of the header.

- **Essentials**: day to day operations and monitoring. Channels are presented as a single unified concept, with live thumbnails and clear status.
- **Advanced**: deeper engineering and service level configuration, exposing the underlying services, alarms, servers, and templates that power each channel. See [Web interface overview](/beam/web-interface) for Advanced view documentation.

Both views operate on the same underlying system. Advanced gives full configuration access at the service level, while Essentials presents that configuration as unified channels.

The first time you open the Essentials view, a welcome dialog introduces the interface, with links to a short video and to this documentation.

## Dashboard

Opening a device in the Essentials view displays the dashboard, showing every channel running on that device.

### Quick controls

Below the header, the dashboard provides:

- **View only alarmed**: a toggle that filters the dashboard to show only channels that currently have alarms.
- **Filter**: a search field to filter the channel list by name.
- **New channel**: opens the channel creation wizard. See [Create a channel](/beam/essentials/create-a-channel).

### Status panel

In the top right of the dashboard, three summary metrics show the device's current load: **CPU Usage**, **Unit up-time**, and **Temperature**. A dash in place of a value means that reading is not available on this device.

Below the summary metrics, a second panel identifies the device: **Software version** and **Installed hardware**.

### Active alarms panel

Below the status panel, the active alarms panel lists every active alarm across the device, sorted by alarm severity and recency. Each entry shows a timestamp, a severity badge, a title, and a description of the fault, usually including the affected service name.

Severity levels are **Critical**, **Major**, and **Notice**. For a full breakdown of alarm types and how to configure alarm overrides, see [Manage alarms](/beam/system-admin/maintenance/manage-alarms).

### Channel cards

The channel card grid is the main part of the dashboard. Each card represents a channel on the device and shows:

- Its **On Air** or **Stopped** status, and a live video thumbnail when it is on air and healthy (a stopped or unhealthy channel shows **No thumbnail** instead).
- Its **Video** parameters (resolution, codec, bitrate, and bit depth) and **Audio** parameters (codec, and mode and bitrate where applicable).
- A signal diagram showing the input and output type for the channel, for example **SDI** into **UDP**, or **ASI** into **SDI**, connected by a line of status dots.

When a channel has an active alarm, the card makes it clear:

- The thumbnail area shows a severity badge, for example a red **Critical** badge.
- The card background and the signal diagram dots turn red or orange to match the alarm severity.

## View channel details

Select a channel card to open its detail view.

At the top of the page, you can see the channel name, its workflow label, and its status.

- Select **Stop** to take the channel off air.
- Select the three dot menu for additional actions.
- Use the channel selector on the left to move to a different channel without returning to the dashboard.

Below the video preview, **Input status** and **Output status** report the live condition of the channel:

- **Input status** shows the input **Type** and **Status** (for example **Not receiving**), and **Service** identification.
- **Output status** shows the output **Type**, and its **Video scaling** and **Dynamic range** settings.

The active alarms panel on the right stays scoped to the selected channel, and shows **No alarm** when the channel is healthy.

## Edit channel settings

From a channel's detail view, use the three dot menu to open its settings. Each section lists the channel's current configuration, with an independent **Modify** button:

- **Channel display name**
- **Workflow**: the channel's type, for example **Reception (Decoding)**.
- **Input**: input type, slot or port, and TS packet size.
- **Audio**: configured audio tracks, with an **+ Add** button for adding another.
- **Output**: output type, and slot or port.