diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 08d9498..7bb3011 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -24,7 +24,9 @@
     "@types/three": "0.148.1",
     "@types/uuid": "^9.0.0",
     "@vitejs/plugin-basic-ssl": "^1.0.1",
+    "color-rgba": "^2.4.0",
     "geolib": "^3.3.3",
+    "jq-web": "^0.5.1",
     "postprocessing": "^6.29.3",
     "react": "^18.2.0",
     "react-dom": "^18.2.0",
diff --git a/src/layers/LabelLayer.tsx b/src/layers/LabelLayer.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d78555a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/layers/LabelLayer.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+import { UniverseTelemetrySource } from "@formant/universe-core";
+import { useContext, useEffect, useMemo, useState } from "react";
+import { DataVisualizationLayer } from "./DataVisualizationLayer";
+import { IUniverseLayerProps } from "./types";
+import { Label } from "./objects/Label";
+import { UniverseDataContext } from "./common/UniverseDataContext";
+import { LayerContext } from "./common/LayerContext";
+import { defined } from "../common/defined";
+// @ts-ignore
+import jq from "jq-web";
+import { parseColor } from "./utils/parseColor";
+interface ILabelLayer extends IUniverseLayerProps {
+  dataSource?: UniverseTelemetrySource;
+  color?: string;
+  textColor?: string;
+  jsonQuery?: string;
+  template?: string;
+  value?: string;
+  colorStates?: {
+    [key: string]: {
+      color: string;
+      textColor: string;
+    };
+  };
+}
+
+export function LabelLayer(props: ILabelLayer) {
+  const {
+    dataSource,
+    color,
+    textColor,
+    jsonQuery,
+    template,
+    value,
+    colorStates,
+  } = props;
+  const [currentValue, setCurrentValue] = useState<string>(value || "");
+  const [currentColor] = useState<string | undefined>(
+    color ? parseColor(color) : undefined
+  );
+  const [currentTextColor] = useState<string | undefined>(
+    textColor ? parseColor(textColor) : undefined
+  );
+  const universeData = useContext(UniverseDataContext);
+  const layerContext = useContext(LayerContext);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    setCurrentValue(value || "");
+  }, [value]);
+
+  const label = useMemo(() => {
+    let extractedValue = currentValue;
+    if (
+      dataSource?.sourceType === "telemetry" &&
+      dataSource.streamType === "json" &&
+      jsonQuery
+    ) {
+      try {
+        extractedValue = jq.json(JSON.parse(currentValue), jsonQuery);
+        if (typeof extractedValue === "string") {
+          extractedValue = extractedValue;
+        } else {
+          extractedValue = JSON.stringify(extractedValue);
+        }
+      } catch (e) {
+        console.error(e);
+        extractedValue = "error parsing json";
+      }
+    }
+
+    let evaluatedColor = currentColor;
+    let evaluatedTextColor = currentTextColor;
+    if (colorStates) {
+      const colorState = colorStates[extractedValue];
+      if (colorState) {
+        evaluatedColor = colorState.color;
+        evaluatedTextColor = colorState.textColor;
+      }
+    }
+    const templatedValue = template
+      ? template.replace("{}", extractedValue)
+      : extractedValue;
+    const label = new Label(
+      templatedValue,
+      false,
+      evaluatedColor ? evaluatedColor : undefined,
+      evaluatedTextColor ? evaluatedTextColor : undefined
+    );
+    return label;
+  }, [colorStates, currentValue, color, jsonQuery, template]);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (dataSource?.sourceType === "telemetry") {
+      if (dataSource.streamType === "json") {
+        const unsub = universeData.subscribeToJson(
+          defined(layerContext?.deviceId),
+          dataSource,
+          (data) => {
+            if (typeof data === "symbol") return;
+            setCurrentValue(data as string);
+          }
+        );
+        return () => unsub();
+      } else if (dataSource?.streamType === "text") {
+        const unsub = universeData.subscribeToText(
+          defined(layerContext?.deviceId),
+          dataSource,
+          (data) => {
+            if (typeof data === "symbol") return;
+            setCurrentValue(data as string);
+          }
+        );
+        return () => unsub();
+      }
+    }
+  }, [dataSource]);
+
+  return (
+    <DataVisualizationLayer {...props} iconUrl="../icons/3d_object.svg">
+      <primitive object={label} />
+    </DataVisualizationLayer>
+  );
+}
diff --git a/src/layers/common/ExampleUniverseData.ts b/src/layers/common/ExampleUniverseData.ts
index 993bd1f..22d16fe 100644
--- a/src/layers/common/ExampleUniverseData.ts
+++ b/src/layers/common/ExampleUniverseData.ts
@@ -225,7 +225,8 @@ export class ExampleUniverseData implements IUniverseData {
     _source: UniverseDataSource,
     _callback: (data: T | DataStatus) => void
   ): CloseSubscription {
-    throw new Error("Method not implemented.");
+    _callback(JSON.stringify({ abc: "123", xyz: [10, 9, 8] }) as any);
+    return () => {};
   }
 
   subscribeToText(
@@ -233,7 +234,8 @@ export class ExampleUniverseData implements IUniverseData {
     _source: UniverseDataSource,
     _callback: (text: string | DataStatus) => void
   ): CloseSubscription {
-    throw new Error("Method not implemented.");
+    _callback("Hello world!");
+    return () => {};
   }
 
   getStatistics(): Promise<IUniverseStatistics> {
diff --git a/src/layers/objects/Label.ts b/src/layers/objects/Label.ts
index 5078ff1..8cf8eeb 100644
--- a/src/layers/objects/Label.ts
+++ b/src/layers/objects/Label.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { definedAndNotNull } from "@formant/universe-core";
 import { Group, Sprite, SpriteMaterial, Texture } from "three";
+import { FormantColors } from "../utils/FormantColors";
 
 function roundRect(
   ctx: CanvasRenderingContext2D,
@@ -34,7 +35,12 @@ export class Label extends Group {
 
   currentText: string;
 
-  constructor(text: string, private sizeAttenuate: boolean = true) {
+  constructor(
+    text: string,
+    private sizeAttenuate: boolean = true,
+    private color: string = FormantColors.module,
+    private textColor: string = FormantColors.silver
+  ) {
     super();
     this.currentText = text;
     this.update();
@@ -71,13 +77,13 @@ export class Label extends Group {
       textWidth + padding,
       textHeight + padding,
       10,
-      "#2d3855"
+      this.color
     );
     context.globalAlpha = 1;
 
     // background color
     context.font = font;
-    context.fillStyle = "#bac4e2";
+    context.fillStyle = this.textColor;
     context.fillText(message, 0 + 10, fontsize + 10);
 
     // canvas contents will be used for a texture
diff --git a/src/layers/utils/parseColor.ts b/src/layers/utils/parseColor.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3411064
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/layers/utils/parseColor.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+// @ts-ignore
+import parse from "color-rgba";
+
+export function parseColor(color: string): string {
+  const vals = parse(color);
+  return `rgba(${vals[0]}, ${vals[1]}, ${vals[2]}, ${vals[3]})`;
+}
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 3d0a51a..3bc5285 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
     "resolveJsonModule": true,
     "isolatedModules": true,
     "noEmit": true,
-    "jsx": "react-jsx"
+    "jsx": "react-jsx",
+    "typeRoots": ["./types", "./node_modules/@types"]
   },
   "include": ["src"],
   "references": [{ "path": "./tsconfig.node.json" }]
diff --git a/types/color-rgba.d.ts b/types/color-rgba.d.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5658cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/types/color-rgba.d.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+// expose types for jq-web
+declare module "jq-web" {
+  export function json(data: any, query: string): any;
+}
+
+declare module "color-rgba" {
+  export function parse(color: string): [number, number, number, number];
+}
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index e48a5ba..46970f5 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -1112,6 +1112,31 @@ color-name@1.1.3:
   resolved "https://registry.npmjs.org/color-name/-/color-name-1.1.3.tgz"
   integrity sha512-72fSenhMw2HZMTVHeCA9KCmpEIbzWiQsjN+BHcBbS9vr1mtt+vJjPdksIBNUmKAW8TFUDPJK5SUU3QhE9NEXDw==
 
+color-name@^1.0.0:
+  version "1.1.4"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/color-name/-/color-name-1.1.4.tgz#c2a09a87acbde69543de6f63fa3995c826c536a2"
+  integrity sha512-dOy+3AuW3a2wNbZHIuMZpTcgjGuLU/uBL/ubcZF9OXbDo8ff4O8yVp5Bf0efS8uEoYo5q4Fx7dY9OgQGXgAsQA==
+
+color-parse@^1.4.2:
+  version "1.4.2"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/color-parse/-/color-parse-1.4.2.tgz#78651f5d34df1a57f997643d86f7f87268ad4eb5"
+  integrity sha512-RI7s49/8yqDj3fECFZjUI1Yi0z/Gq1py43oNJivAIIDSyJiOZLfYCRQEgn8HEVAj++PcRe8AnL2XF0fRJ3BTnA==
+  dependencies:
+    color-name "^1.0.0"
+
+color-rgba@^2.4.0:
+  version "2.4.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/color-rgba/-/color-rgba-2.4.0.tgz#ae85819c530262c29fc2da129fc7c8f9efc57015"
+  integrity sha512-Nti4qbzr/z2LbUWySr7H9dk3Rl7gZt7ihHAxlgT4Ho90EXWkjtkL1avTleu9yeGuqrt/chxTB6GKK8nZZ6V0+Q==
+  dependencies:
+    color-parse "^1.4.2"
+    color-space "^2.0.0"
+
+color-space@^2.0.0:
+  version "2.0.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/color-space/-/color-space-2.0.0.tgz#ae7813abcbe3dabda9e3e2266b0675f688b24977"
+  integrity sha512-Bu8P/usGNuVWushjxcuaGSkhT+L2KX0cvgMGMTF0KJ7lFeqonhsntT68d6Yu3uwZzCmbF7KTB9EV67AGcUXhJw==
+
 convert-source-map@^1.5.0, convert-source-map@^1.7.0:
   version "1.9.0"
   resolved "https://registry.npmjs.org/convert-source-map/-/convert-source-map-1.9.0.tgz"
@@ -1388,6 +1413,11 @@ its-fine@^1.0.6:
   dependencies:
     "@types/react-reconciler" "^0.28.0"
 
+jq-web@^0.5.1:
+  version "0.5.1"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/jq-web/-/jq-web-0.5.1.tgz#4456cd3be4c2688c43f287b1fec2e3ea29e427e3"
+  integrity sha512-3Fa3E6g3U1O1j46ljy0EM10yRr4txzILga8J7bqOG8F89gZ6Lilz82WG9z6TItWpYEO0YGa4W8yFGj+NMM1xqQ==
+
 js-md5@^0.7.3:
   version "0.7.3"
   resolved "https://registry.npmjs.org/js-md5/-/js-md5-0.7.3.tgz"