WHEN RTE reluctantly accepted the job of setting up Teilifis na Gaeilge two years ago, the first question management faced was a key one: who do we get to do it?
Few people who spoke Irish had the necessary skills and experience to handle the task. One who did was Cathal Groan, an RTE producer in charge of the station's Irish language television output. Under his leadership programmes in Irish - for years the Cinderella of the service - had developed into a respected part of the schedule.
When he was chosen as ceannasai or head of TnaG, a sigh of relief went through the Irish speaking community. Within the television industry, some of those who scoffed at the idea of an Irish station started to take it seriously for the first time.
Sitting in his Portacabin-cum-office near TnaG's new headquarters in Baile na hAbhann in Connemara, Groan chooses his words carefully. But a kind of boyish enthusiasm seeps out as he describes the technology which, he says, wills make the station's newsroom the best in the world".
He peppers his speech with words like "challenge" and says his vision for TnaG is "a vigorous, independent, innovative service not afraid to challenge existing preconceptions".
It will use the technology "to break new ground in programme-making" and aims to satisfy its core audience of Irish speakers while reaching out to a broader potential audience.
"This is a time of new developments in television which have enormous implications for the way programmes are made and the access people have to them," he says. "It's a great time to be starting a television station."
It will use digital technology to record and broadcast programmes. This means no more videotape: news footage will be recorded directly on to compact disc in a special type of camera so new that only about six of them have yet been made.
TnaG will have a satellite van moving around Munster, able to beam news packages ready-edited to Baile na hAbhann, ready for transmission. The day of the multi-skilled "robohack", long feared by the National Union of Journalists, has crept up unannounced, prompting the union to seek belated negotiations with RTE.
Similar technology will be used in the general programming area. The programmes will be held on file servers, just like a file server you would have on a computer. There are things called profiles and they store up to three hours of programmes on a disk, which gives you all sorts of advantages in terms of instant and random access to what it is you are doing.
"It also increases the opportunities for automation, and automation in certain aspects of Teilifis na Gaeilge means a net saving of money. What we're interested in doing is trying to keep the overheads as low as possible so most of the money is spent on commissioning the programmes."
TnaG is a publisher/ broadcaster, which means it buys its programmes from independent producers scattered all around the country. This, together with the flexibility offered by the new technology, will determine the character and ethos of the station and should make it less likely to develop a centrist corporate identity like RTE, Dublin 4 is unlikely to translate into Gaillimh a Ceathair.
It is already having a huge impact on the independent sector, Goan says. The independent sector in Ireland has burgeoned over the past seven or eight years. RTE is investing more in independent production and now with the advent of Teilifis na Gaeilge, what you see over a short period of time is a tripling of the amount of money being spent in Ireland on the independent sector. That's a huge injection not just of cash, but of people and talent into this industry - young people, mostly."
One of the biggest gambles TnaG is taking is to give significant commissions to a new generation of programme-makers, including dozens of people from Gaeltacht areas who have undertaken training courses over the past seven years run by Udaras na Gaeltachta. Some of these people have notched up considerable experience; others less.
Other commissions have been given to well-established companies in Dublin such as Tyrone Productions.
Goan admits this dual approach may lead at times to an uneven output, but says he is happy the overall standard will be high. "Clearly there will be programmes from time to time which will show the joins."
The mixture of experience and new faces is also seen in the choice of the station's two commissioning editors: the award-winning former RTE producer, Anne McCabe; and Micheal O Meallaigh from the Donegal Gaeltacht, who came to television via an Udaras course.
"He came to us with the outsider's view of the programming business, because it's fair to say that both myself and Anne McCabe come from the great big institution in Donnybrook, and might have a view of programming coloured by that experience."
Programmes such as the music series commissioned by TnaG from Hummingbird Productions which features Donal Lunny and band playing with a range of big names in contemporary music say a lot about what TnaG is trying to achieve, according to Goan.
"The Donal Lunny series is a reflection of an aspect of contemporary Irish life which is quite catholic with a small `c'. You have a musician who has a broad range of experience across a variety of different musics, and who can play effortlessly with those people and engage them in exciting performances, doing just that: everything from sean-nos singing to Mark Knopfler and Van Morrison.
"What that reflects is a broad approach to music. There are no hang-ups involved in this - nobody's trying to put badges on the music, nobody's trying to say, this is Irish music, this is country and western music, this is rock music. This is more a general approach to people's wide taste in music in this country. I think that's relatively new.
"In the case of Niall Mac Eachmharcaigh's programmes a black comedy set in the Donegal Gaeltacht called C. U. Burn one of the things which will be immediately striking is the landscape, which is something you don't see that often on television. Secondly, there is the fact that the programmes themselves are quite anarchic, in a way that perhaps we're not used to."
Another innovation is the way sean-nos singing will be presented in a series made by Trevor O Clochartaigh. A number of different singers interpret parts of the same song, its background is explained, and actors interpret visually the story told by the lyrics.
"And that's not archaeological: that's a reflection of a vibrant interest in sean-nos singing. Sean-nos is a limited audience, but it is there and it's a very enthusiastic audience and I would be unapologetic in seeing it as part, of our job to serve that audience.
He says there is a strong commitment to developing drama as part of the station's core schedule, despite the high costs involved.
"What we said to ourselves at the start was that we were telling our own stories to ourselves, and drama is one of the most effective ways of doing that."
This includes once-off projects aimed at cultivating new talent as well as soaps such as Ros na Run and drama dubbed into Irish from Welsh, Scots Gaelic and other languages.
The news will be different to that currently available, even though it will be provided by RTE. "From the outset it was recognised that it would need to have some independence and editorial distance from RTE in order to effect a differentiated service.
"That's effectively what we have now: Michael Lally [head of news is answerable to me on a daily editorial basis but answerable to RTE for the effective running of the service."
