4 min read

REQ:IQ vs. PulseMesh

Both play your show's music on viewers' phones, perfectly in sync with the lights. The difference is everything around the audio.

PulseMesh pioneered phone audio for light shows, and it does that one job well. Any system that gets this right ends up in a similar place — live streams lag, so the song has to reach the phone ahead of time and play in step with the show’s clock.

REQ:IQ built its own take on that idea, and put it where your audience already is: the viewer page. That’s the whole story in one sentence: audio, requests, voting, karaoke, and your branding live on one page, behind one QR code, run by one FPP plugin. Before, an interactive show meant choosing — Remote Falcon or PulseMesh, requests or phone audio — or running two services, two plugins, and two pages side by side. Now it’s just a toggle on the Audio tab.

Feature by feature

Included With setup / partial Not available

The audio itself

FeatureREQ:IQPulseMesh

Phone audio synced to the lights (no FM radio needed)

REQ:IQ Each song downloads to the phone first, then plays locked to your show's clock

PM The pioneer of phone audio for light shows

Full quality, no buffering — never a laggy live stream

REQ:IQ The phone plays a local copy and stays locked to the show clock

Works in the browser — no app to install

Speaker/PA alignment offset, tuned live by ear

REQ:IQ Millisecond steps from the Audio tab; applies to every phone

Audio pulled straight off your FPP box — exact same files

REQ:IQ One tap: Pull from FPP (or upload MP3s by hand)

PM Connector daemon uploads your audio

Self-correcting sync (fixes drift without you noticing)

REQ:IQ Inaudible speed nudges; hard re-sync only when needed

Everything around the audio

FeatureREQ:IQPulseMesh

Audio and song requests on the same page

REQ:IQ One page, one QR code — viewers listen AND request from the same screen

PM Audio only; requests need a second service and a second page

Crowd Pick voting on what plays next

Karaoke — synced lyrics on the same phone that's playing audio

REQ:IQ Audio + lyrics together turn every phone into a sing-along

Now Playing, Up Next, and live queue on the viewer page

PM Shows the current song; no queue (there are no requests)

Operator show control (play, skip, volume) from your phone

Request safeguards (limits, cooldowns, geofencing)

REQ:IQ Geofencing gates the audio stream too, not just requests

Your branding on the viewer page

PM Display page branding on pulsemesh.io

Setup & price

FeatureREQ:IQPulseMesh

One FPP plugin runs everything

REQ:IQ The same fpp-SETIQ plugin that runs requests also pulls and syncs audio

PM Separate Connector plugin + a background daemon; FPP MultiSync must be enabled

Free with no viewer caps

REQ:IQ No subscription, no concurrent-listener limits

PM Free tier caps concurrent listeners (single digits) and sessions per year; paid tiers lift the caps

Nothing new to buy or maintain

REQ:IQ No transmitter, no extra hardware — it's already in REQ:IQ

Works alongside your FM transmitter

Music-rights confirmation built into setup

REQ:IQ You attest you have rights before audio can turn on

PM Covered by their terms of service

Where PulseMesh still shines

It’s the specialist. Phone audio is its entire product, with years of shows behind it and commercial tiers that serve very large events.
Show discovery. Viewers can find nearby PulseMesh displays from the PulseMesh site — REQ:IQ has no cross-show map.
Big-event capacity plans. If you run a commercial display with thousands of concurrent listeners, their paid tiers are built exactly for that.

Common questions

Is the sync as good as PulseMesh's?

Judge it on its own numbers: the phone downloads the song and plays it locally, locked to the show clock and corrected with speed nudges too small to hear. In field testing the clock agreement lands within about ±10 ms — tighter than the difference between standing at the curb and standing at your door.

Can I run PulseMesh and REQ:IQ together?

Yes — nothing conflicts. But if you’re already on REQ:IQ for requests, turning on its built-in audio means one fewer plugin, one fewer account, and one page for your viewers instead of two.

What does REQ:IQ's audio cost?

Nothing. It’s part of REQ:IQ — no subscription, no listener caps, no session metering. PulseMesh’s free tier caps concurrent listeners in the single digits; busy nights need a paid plan.

What about music rights?

The same as FM: streaming to your audience is your responsibility as the show runner. REQ:IQ makes that explicit — you confirm you have the rights before audio can turn on — and geofencing can keep both requests and audio limited to people actually at your show.

How do I turn it on?

REQ:IQ → Audio tab → confirm rights → enable → Pull from FPP. The Listen button shows up on your viewer page immediately.

PulseMesh is an independent product and a trademark of its respective owners. This comparison reflects publicly documented features and pricing at the time of writing and is provided for informational purposes.