Preparations
Wednesday morning the doors to The Gathering open, but for several days and nights already, there’s been activity in the hall. Miles of cables have been stretched, tables have been nailed together, the stage has been set up and the goodiebags packed. Everything has to be completely ready before the hordes of computer enthusiasts poor into the ship.
 |
| * Vikingskipet tuesday afternoon. |
Tuesday afternoon, Leif Kristian Olstad was already in full motion by the northern entrance, rigging up the fast-food kitchen. Olstad has been running the restaurants by the northern corner for years, and is very much looking forward to this years participants stopping by to get a bite to eat and douse their thirst. The participants buy a lot of pizza, hamburger plates, soft-ice, soda and cakes, Olstad tells us, who’s taken notice that the participants are far more active now then in then past.
 |
| * Leif Kristian Olstad. |
- I’ve noticed that the participants didn’t go out much in the past, but now they’re going out more and more, and contribute to a fair amount of sales at the gas stations and restaurants around the ship, Olstad says, who is pleased to see that the participants choose to go out of the ship more, rather then just sit inside during the entire event.
Recycling
Right by the fast-food kitchen, the guys in Resirk are getting ready to take in all kinds of bottles and recyclable stuff. During The Gathering, the environmentalists take in everything that the participants want to get rid off, and give them points in return.
- We do this to improve the society and to avoid a lot of garbage.
When one turns in recyclable stuff, you get points in return that you can gather up and win prices with.
- We take in old computer parts, bottles, anything, Tom Ole Løvig says.
With sound and lights
What would The Gathering be without proper entertainment from the stage?
 |
| * Jørgen Vigdal. |
- The sound system is roughly on 2x36.000 watt. Soundwize, we could in theory play at 158db within the area that we cover, but we put a limit on 115db max, Jørgen Vigdal in event:vision tells us.
The entire stage rigg combined this year, pulls about 120.000 watts, and has gotten a few new modules. Among other things, two new LED-screens are in place, in addition to the main HD ready screen.
- There’s been a lot of discussion around using these types of LED screens, since they don’t provide such a good resolution in HD. But we think they provide such a good light and image of the stage, that we decided to give them a go this year, Vigdal says.
