It's a networked video game. If you're in the living room, folks are expected to bring their own computer. Each computer maps to a station on the bridge of a spaceship, like navigator or tactical.

The hope is that the game can be hosted over the internet through port-forwarding or on a VPC. That "part of a larger event" is actually in reference to running the game over a LAN at a convention.

The USS Voyager is a physical bridge simulator in Utah, USA that uses the Thorium Classic software, the precursor to Thorium Nova.