Broadcasters at the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) meeting, which runs until Saturday (March 2), visited the Main Media Centre and International Broadcast Centre in the Imeretinskaya Valley, which will be from where the Games television signal will be transmitted next year.

Work is due to begin in May to fit out the venue and install equipment at the centre, which adjoins the Olympic Park to provide direct access to venues in the coastal cluster, is as it gears up to welcome 12,000 media representatives - including over 10,000 broadcasters - representing about 100 companies from all around the world during Sochi 2014.

The Main Media Centre, which will also feature common areas, conveniences and catering facilities, will open a full month before the start of the Olympics and close after the Paralympics to offer a 24 hours a day seven days a week operation from January 7 until March 17.

Members of the media in the mountain cluster will use the Gorki Media Centre, which, as with the Main Media Centre, includes both Broadcast and Press Centres across a total area of more than 31,000 square metres.

The fit-out work on this facility will begin in September, with broadcasters able to prepare for the Games in advance when the centre officially opens its doors for media representatives on January 24.

All the Olympic venues in the coastal and mountain clusters will also operate their own dedicated media centres that will open three hours before the start of competitions and closing four hours after their completion in the mountain cluster venues and two hours before and three hours after in the coastal cluster.

Many of the television companies that travelled to Sochi are planning to organise their own production in the Black Sea resort to create national coverage of the competitions from the Olympic venues tailored for the specific audiences in various countries.

A number of major television companies will begin working in Sochi as early as November 2013.

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