BOISE, Idaho — We're nearing the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
You may have been one of the 34 million viewers worldwide watching the winners walk away with gold, or maybe you're watching some of the 32 sports and wondering what's going on.
One Idaho company is helping explain the games behind the scenes so viewers know how high Simone Biles jumps on her floor routine or how much faster Katie Ledecky is than the silver contender trailing behind her.
Silverdraft, founded right in Boise, is the behind the scenes driver, and it's not just the athletes keeping them on their seats
From seeing a design in 3D, to bringing the graphics to life during a big game, Silverdraft Founder and CEO, Amy Gile said, Silverdraft is the supercomputing company, powering workstations that handle the demand of extended reality, virtual reality, and more.
"Our clients come to us with what seems like impossible challenges, and we look at it, and we look at the full workflow and say, Alright, we can do that," Gile said. "Let's make that happen."
Gile said broadcasters around the world are using this virtual technology
The company works with the MLB, NFL, the movie industry, and even the Olympics.
"The audience member is understanding in a completely different way," Gile said. "That impact of what it is that you're sharing is, is driven with what we call virtual production, or XR graphics, and that just continues to increase."
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As you watch the Olympic games, this Boise company is driving the infrastructure for these broadcast groups, like NBC, to have virtual studios, the ability to fly around Paris in 3D, and show live data feeds that can follow an athlete's location, pace or other important stats.
Broadcasters are using real-time, 3D rendering and camera tracking to add graphics and data to live events feeds.
"We are the enablement behind it to drive the technology and the workflow to support them with these visions that they come up with," Gile said. "It's incredible how much is not actually there. When you're watching the broadcast, right? Like, all of a sudden there's graphics, or statistics that will come up on the side, or you see the mascot come jumping through the stadium."
Gile said when she watches the games, she's sitting on the edge of her seat. It's not just because she's rooting for the athletes to take gold.
"I get nervous and if I see something, I'll be like, 'Is that Silverdraft? Then I go, 'Oh few it wasn't Silverdraft,' you just get nervous," she said.
She said they design their workstations to handle rain, sand, dirt, or any terrain athletes might deal with, so does Silverdraft.
"We're doing things and breaking records and doing things that haven't, haven't been done in the tech space that takes a lot of nerve to do, because if you fail, and you fail live, that's just not an option," she said. "It's just not and so we're constantly thinking, what if, what if, what if? Okay, solution, backup."
It's helping viewers have all the information they need to follow the games, and allowing producers to create incredible visuals that are worthy of gold.
"We're in a little bit of an Olympics of our own right," Gile said.