Brian Wynne, Head of Technology Infrastructure, RTÉ
As media evolves faster than ever, many public service media (PSM) organizations are facing the same fundamental challenge: how to stay true to their public mission while navigating the constantly shifting landscape. RTÉ’s 2025– 2029 strategy, New Direction, offers a confident answer, one that places storytelling at the core, powered by the systems needed to deliver it anywhere, anytime.
Under this strategy, content is the map – it guides, inspires, and shapes the path. Content decisions determine what matters, which stories are worth telling, whose voices are elevated, and what role RTÉ plays for its audience, and in turn, the content strategy influences technology development.
Technology is the terrain, the environment through which content must travel, the network of systems that enables every story to be created, moved and scaled to reach its audience. It is this combination of content strategy and technology development that establishes a forward-looking foundation for the creation and distribution of public service content.
Creative compass
At the heart of RTÉ’s new direction is a bold creative vision. RTÉ has committed to increasing production with the independent sector, delivering 60 hours of original Irish drama and comedy by 2028, while focusing on regional investment and cultural initiatives. These initiatives are the creative coordinates marking out where RTÉ is going and why. But even the best map is useless if we don’t have the ability to move through the landscape it describes.
While content defines the route, it is technology that allows RTÉ to walk it and to do so with speed, scale and resilience. Several flagship projects are now defining RTÉ’s future media terrain.
Orion: the live backbone
Orion is RTÉ’s state-of-the-art ST 2110 IP-based media network. It replaces traditional infrastructure with a real-time, high-capacity IP backbone that supports live video production across the organization. It is robust, agile, and future-proof; Orion provides the stable foundation that will power RTÉ’s path ahead. Designed and built so that it can scale over time, it allows us to move our infrastructure from SDI to IP incrementally, as budgets and refresh cycles allow.
Aurora: archive & engine
Aurora is our decentralized, high-capacity object data storage platform, built for resilience, accessibility, and growth. It houses RTÉ’s creative output and decades of archival material, instantly retrievable. Aurora will soon be RTÉ’s central creative hub, providing low-cost, high-capacity storage for all parts of the company. In addition to storing the archive that defines our past, it will also be a key enabler for the production workflows that shape our future.
Built on Aurora, One Media Share will enable collaboration between RTÉ’s creative teams. It will seamlessly connect production teams, archives and digital platforms enabling real- time access, collaboration, and content sharing across RTÉ.
These are the tools and infrastructure that will power real- time collaboration and content flow, ensuring RTÉ’s creative journey is agile, connected, and fast-moving.
Already in motion
RTÉ isn’t waiting for the future to arrive. While the above projects are currently being rolled out, the transformation journey has been under way for several years now.
By investing in new LED wall virtual studios we’ve enabled multi-format, modern production methods. Keeping the set elements light in these studios makes them ‘fast turnaround’, allowing us to produce multiple different formats from the same studio in a far shorter time than traditional studios – and all of this while maintaining production values and without compromising on the unique look and feel of each programme.
We also have a new suite of visual radio studios that are extending radio output to television, online and social platforms. Content initially produced for radio can now be utilized on other platforms, allowing us to make better use of our existing resources. Similarly, a developing podcast strategy is reaching new audiences with serialized, on-demand storytelling and more visual content.
Across the organization, new production models are being conceived to support decentralized and agile content creation. As RTÉ builds these new production models to support more sustainable, cost-effective storytelling, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence offer new opportunities to enhance productivity. AI-enabled tools, from metadata tagging to automated workflows, will accelerate content discovery, streamline production processes, and unlock more creative time for teams. In the evolving terrain, AI will become a vital companion on the creative journey.
The power of the players
The RTÉ Player is central to this journey. It is no longer just a companion to traditional broadcast; it is rapidly becoming the primary destination for Irish audiences seeking on-demand, high-quality video content. In 2024, the RTÉ Player achieved a record-breaking 42% growth in streams, reaching 142 million views across television and digital platforms. By 2029, half of all non-live video content will debut first on the RTÉ Player, as part of a massive expansion in on-demand hours.
Alongside this, the RTÉ Radio Player will continue to transform how audiences access and experience audio content. Live radio, podcasts, and on-demand audio services are available across multiple devices, reflecting the same shift toward personalized, anytime access in the audio space.
The surge in usage across both platforms reflects a fundamental change in audience behaviour, from scheduled television and radio listening to personalized, on-demand engagement. This transformation is not just about convenience, it is about meeting audiences where they are, on their terms, while continuing to deliver rich, trusted storytelling.
In our evolving media terrain, the RTÉ Player and RTÉ Radio Player are not simply digital add-ons, they are the highways that connect RTÉ’s creative map to its audience, offering seamless access to video and audio content, driving deeper engagement, and creating new opportunities for innovation in how stories are told and shared. The success of the players is based on ongoing investment, platform enhancement, and a relentless focus on user experience.
Journey ahead
RTÉ’s New Direction is more than a strategy – it is a reorientation of the broadcast business, built on the understanding that content alone is not enough, and neither is technology. It is their relationship, supported by new, more efficient production models, that truly matters. Content sets the path, technology enables the journey, and innovation can ensure it is sustainable and cost-effective. While the map sets RTÉ’s direction, the terrain makes it possible to deliver it into the lives of audiences everywhere.
RTÉ’s journey is guided by one constant: placing the audience at the heart of every story, on every platform.
This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of tech-i magazine.