Comms (Next)

Comms shows one lane per radio channel and marks which speakers are talking on it over time. The layout names the lanes and the speakers. The data service supplies, for each lane, a series channel whose value at each instant is the list of speakers active on that lane.

Use it for radio or intercom occupancy in crew training, where the question is who was on which net and when. It supports playback, so the lanes follow the realm clock when the page or the widget shows playback controls.

Summary

	Value
Layout id	`Comms`
Widget config	`commsItem`
Channel shape	`series` (value is a string array of speaker names)
Playback	Yes, optional
Realm filter	No
Dual column	No

Migration status

migrated, full layout and dataservice reference: tools/arbex/reference/next/Comms.json. See Dataservice migration status.

Layout

Field	Required	Description
`name`, `titleContent`	Yes	Widget instance name and panel title
`channels`	Yes	One data service channel id per lane, in display order
`commsItem.channels`	Yes	The display label for each lane. Same length and order as `channels`.
`commsItem.nodes[]`	Yes	The speakers: `{ text, color, strokeColor }`. `text` must match the strings that appear in the series samples. Doubles as the legend.
`enablePlaybackControls`	No	Show a playback bar on this widget
`shouldRenderTitle`, `tooltipContent`, `shouldRenderTooltip`	No	Panel chrome

Schema: #/$defs/CommsItemSchema in heat-layout-schema.json.

Layout column example


{
  "component": "Comms",
  "colspan": 12,
  "configuration": {
    "name": "crew-comms",
    "titleContent": "Comms",
    "shouldRenderTitle": true,
    "enablePlaybackControls": true,
    "channels": ["comms-primary", "comms-secondary"],
    "commsItem": {
      "channels": ["Primary", "Secondary"],
      "nodes": [
        { "text": "Commander", "color": "#EE7127", "strokeColor": "#642F10" },
        { "text": "Gunner", "color": "#0B5370", "strokeColor": "#05232F" },
        { "text": "Driver", "color": "#8D2260", "strokeColor": "#3B0E28" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Data contract

Shape	Payload
`series`	`data[]` of `{ "timeMs": number, "value": string[] }`. Each `value` lists the `nodes[].text` entries active on that lane at that instant. An empty array means the lane is silent.

Each lane is its own channel. The widget reads the sample current at the playback time for every channel in channels and pairs it with the label at the same index in commsItem.channels.

Channel example


{
  "id": "comms-primary",
  "name": "comms-primary",
  "groupId": "comms",
  "shape": "series",
  "data": [
    { "timeMs": 0, "value": ["Commander", "Gunner"] },
    { "timeMs": 1000, "value": ["Gunner"] },
    { "timeMs": 2000, "value": [] }
  ]
}

Behaviour notes

Clicking a speaker in the legend hides that speaker on every lane. Clicking again shows them.
A speaker name in a sample that has no matching nodes[].text is not drawn.
When every lane has no sample at the current time, the widget shows its empty state.
Comms is often nested inside a Modal so that several vignettes can be compared through the modal’s own realm picker.

Next components index
Layout reference
ComposableChart: a ranges_lane slice is the alternative for comms drawn as intervals on a shared time axis
RAG: tools/arbex/rag/reference/components/Comms.md
Reference: tools/arbex/reference/next/Comms.json

HEAT documentation team. Last updated 2 October 2026.

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