International Broadcasters Get Ready for Sochi Games
The second OBS Sochi 2014 World Broadcaster Meeting is being held fr om February, 25 to March, 2 in Sochi. Over 200 representatives of Russian and international broadcasters holding rights for the 2014 Games have travelled to Sochi to view the broadcast facilities that will be offered to them at the Games. In accordance with the Games organizer’s plans the building of the Main Media Center, located in Imeretinskaya Valley, (it also includes the International Broadcast Center), will be the main hub from which the Olympic Games television signal will be transmitted in 2014.
In May 2013, work will begin to fit out the venue and install equipment in line with requirements of the Olympic Broadcasting Service, which is responsible for international TV coverage production and provision of services for broadcasters.
During the Games, the Center is expected to welcome 12,000 media representatives – including over 10,000 broadcasters representing about 100 companies from all around the world. In the common areas, there will be various services to help make the environment as comfortable as possible for TV and radio broadcaster staff, including a bank and cash machines, post office, launderette, shops, gym, beauty salon, massage parlor and news agent. Two main restaurants, fast-food outlet, restaurant court, three coffee-shops and various drink and snack vending machines will also ensure a wide range of appealing catering options for the media. The Main Media Center adjoins the Olympic Park to the north, providing the media with direct and easy access to the Olympic venues in the Coastal Cluster.
The Main Media Center will open a full month before the start of the Olympic Games, with doors opening on January 7, 2014, and will close after the Paralympic Games on March, 17. During the Olympic Games the Center is going to operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
In the Mountain Cluster, broadcaster staff will be accommodated in the "Gorki" Media Center. As with the Main Media Center, the "Gorki" Media Center includes both Mountain Broadcast Center and Press Center. The total area of the venue exceeds 31,000 sq.m.
Work on the "Gorki" Media Center fit-out for television and radio companies will begin in September 2013. Broadcasters will be able to prepare for the Games in advance and the "Gorki" Media Center will officially open its doors for all other media representatives from January, 24.
In addition to the Main Media Center and "Gorki" Media Center, at all Olympic venues of the Coastal and Mountain Clusters their own Media centers will operate.
They will open 3 hours before the start of competitions, closing 4 hours after their completion in the Mountain cluster venues and 2 hours before and 3 hours after competitions at the Coastal Cluster.
The OBS Sochi 2014 World Broadcaster Meeting is a significant occasion on the calendar of global sports television events. Many of those TV companies who travelled to Sochi are planning to organize their own production in the host city of the Winter Games of 2014, wh ere both their own employees and residents of Sochi and other Russian cities will work together. They will be housed in the Main and "Gorki" Media Centers and, with the help of the Olympic Broadcasting Services, 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.
The participants of the 2nd OBS Sochi 2014 World Broadcaster Meetingare representatives of international television and radio companies including BBC (Great Britain), NBC (USA), CBC (Canada), ARD/ZDF (Germany), FT2/FT3 (France), Japanese Consortium (Japan) and of course, Russian national rightholders: ANO "Sports Broadcasting", Channel One Russia, VGTRK and NTV-PLUS. Also, representatives of the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Broadcasting Services as well as the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee members are present at the meeting.
Notes to the Editor
The Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) was created by the IOC in 2001 in order to produce international TV coverage of Olympic events and ensure that high standards of broadcasting are maintained from Games to Games, and in order to provide the facilities and perform the services to TV broadcasting companies who hold the rights to cover the Games. In preparation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Broadcasting Services are holding two OBS World Broadcaster Meetings on the regular basis. At these meetings, broadcasters will be presented all aspects from the organization of the Games to television broadcasting, will be shown the Olympic venues, and their questions will be answered related to their Games operations before, during and after the Games. This event is the largest event in the world of sport television and radio, and forms the attitude to the Games and the host country among the Media audience, on which the opinion of the world depends.