Wagtail as a signage system for a brand new children's hospital
Most Wagtail projects are websites. This one is a network of 30 Sony BRAVIA screens across Ireland's new National Children's Hospital, managed entirely through Wagtail with no proprietary signage platform and no extra hardware.
The talk covers the full journey: the original idea, why Wagtail made sense as a signage CMS, and how content editors end up managing screens the same way they manage a website. Then we get into what actually happened when we put it on real hardware, because the browser behaves very differently on a TV in a hospital corridor than it does on a developer's laptop. Hear how we navigated offline behaviour, video caching and emergency overrides, and what happens when the network goes down at 3am in a hospital.
The talk is built around honest findings from a prototyping sprint. What worked, what didn't, what we'd do differently. Attendees will leave with a clear picture of what Wagtail can and can't do out of the box for non-web display contexts, and a practical starting point for anyone considering something similar.
About Ben Heasman
Ben Heasman is a Client Partner at Torchbox, where he leads digital projects for public sector and cultural organisations. He spends most of his time helping clients figure out what to build and why, working across discovery, product strategy and delivery.
About Emily Topp-Mugglestone
Senior developer at Torchbox and member of the Wagtail Core Team, responsible for features including workflow and commenting.
