diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 6b09d09..2b501fb 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@
       <artifactId>amqp-client</artifactId>
       <version>2.6.1</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
+      <artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
+      <version>1.1</version>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/TestTopology.java b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/TestTopology.java
index 9eb959f..511833e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/TestTopology.java
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/TestTopology.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 import backtype.storm.topology.TopologyBuilder;
 
+import uk.co.samstokes.storm.scheme.JSONScheme;
 import uk.co.samstokes.storm.spout.AMQPSpout;
 
 public class TestTopology {
@@ -21,7 +22,8 @@ public static void main (String[] args) {
               args[3],
               args[4],
               args[5],
-              args[6]
+              args[6],
+              new JSONScheme()
               ));
 
         final Config config = new Config();
diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/scheme/JSONScheme.java b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/scheme/JSONScheme.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6049a6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/scheme/JSONScheme.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package uk.co.samstokes.storm.scheme;
+
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.json.simple.JSONValue;
+
+import backtype.storm.spout.Scheme;
+
+import backtype.storm.tuple.Fields;
+
+
+public class JSONScheme implements Scheme {
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = -7734176307841199017L;
+
+    private final String encoding;
+
+
+    public JSONScheme(String encoding) {
+        this.encoding = encoding;
+    }
+    public JSONScheme() {
+        this("UTF-8");
+    }
+
+
+    @Override
+    public List<Object> deserialize(byte[] bytes) {
+        final String chars;
+        try {
+            chars = new String(bytes, encoding);
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+        final Object json = JSONValue.parse(chars);
+        return Collections.singletonList(json);
+    }
+
+
+    @Override
+    public Fields getOutputFields() {
+        return new Fields("object");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/spout/AMQPSpout.java b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/spout/AMQPSpout.java
index c5d994e..d158b5d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/spout/AMQPSpout.java
+++ b/src/main/java/uk/co/samstokes/storm/spout/AMQPSpout.java
@@ -7,15 +7,12 @@
 import com.rabbitmq.client.Connection;
 import com.rabbitmq.client.ConnectionFactory;
 import com.rabbitmq.client.QueueingConsumer;
+import backtype.storm.spout.Scheme;
 import backtype.storm.spout.SpoutOutputCollector;
 import backtype.storm.task.TopologyContext;
 import backtype.storm.topology.IRichSpout;
 import backtype.storm.topology.OutputFieldsDeclarer;
 
-import backtype.storm.tuple.Fields;
-import backtype.storm.tuple.Values;
-
-
 public class AMQPSpout implements IRichSpout {
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 11258942292629263L;
 
@@ -29,6 +26,8 @@ public class AMQPSpout implements IRichSpout {
     private final String amqpExchange;
     private final String amqpRoutingKey;
 
+    private final Scheme serialisationScheme;
+
     private transient Connection amqpConnection;
     private transient Channel amqpChannel;
     private transient QueueingConsumer amqpConsumer;
@@ -37,7 +36,7 @@ public class AMQPSpout implements IRichSpout {
     private SpoutOutputCollector collector;
 
 
-    public AMQPSpout(String host, int port, String username, String password, String vhost, String exchange, String routingKey) {
+    public AMQPSpout(String host, int port, String username, String password, String vhost, String exchange, String routingKey, Scheme scheme) {
         this.amqpHost = host;
         this.amqpPort = port;
         this.amqpUsername = username;
@@ -45,6 +44,8 @@ public AMQPSpout(String host, int port, String username, String password, String
         this.amqpVhost = vhost;
         this.amqpExchange = exchange;
         this.amqpRoutingKey = routingKey;
+
+        this.serialisationScheme = scheme;
     }
 
 
@@ -96,9 +97,7 @@ public void nextTuple() {
                     final QueueingConsumer.Delivery delivery = amqpConsumer.nextDelivery(WAIT_FOR_NEXT_MESSAGE);
                     if (delivery == null) break;
                     final byte[] message = delivery.getBody();
-                    // TODO do something more intelligent
-                    final String todoHack = new String(message);
-                    collector.emit(new Values(todoHack));
+                    collector.emit(serialisationScheme.deserialize(message));
                 } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                     break;
                 }
@@ -164,8 +163,7 @@ private void setupAMQP() throws IOException {
 
     @Override
     public void declareOutputFields(OutputFieldsDeclarer declarer) {
-        // TODO do something more intelligent
-        declarer.declare(new Fields("todoHack"));
+        declarer.declare(serialisationScheme.getOutputFields());
     }