ADJ Brings Pure Lighting Excitement to D.C. Super Lounge

ADJ and Inosta Solutions take the bull by the horns at Richard Sandoval’s Toro Toro Steakhouse

With RSR (Richard Sandoval Restaurants) being named as one of the 25 Coolest Multi-Concept Companies by Restaurant Hospitality back in 2013, Richard Sandoval – a multi-award winning chef and restaurateur – runs some of the most-respected and well-designed restaurants throughout the Americas and across the world, with thirty based in the USA alone.

His Toro Toro Pan Latin Steakhouse restaurant in Washington, D.C. combines the ‘warmth of Latin American dining with a trendy New York City-esque lounge environment’, offering late night dining and music from top DJs. Toro Toro has two further restaurants in Dubai, one in Miami, and an up-and-coming eatery in New York City.

With top DJs and incredible food, Toro Toro really needed the lighting experience to match, which is why Inosta Solutions, designers Randy White and Ayyaz Rashid, and additional programmers, Angel Perez and Arnoldo Offermann, picked loads of great ADJ fixtures (supplied by Chuck Levin’s Washington Music) to make the magic happen on the dance-floor in Toro Toro’s super lounge.

One winning element of the install was Randy and Ayyaz’s decision to place twenty-seven ADJ Sweeper Beams behind the DJ booth. “With the Sweeper Beam being a new product, none of our competitors were using them, so it was the perfect chance to give our lightshow a unique edge. Being behind the booth, they’re the first thing you see when you come down the stairs, so it makes a great impact on first-time customers,” Randy tells us. But the versatility was also a big factor: “Sweeper Beams are dynamic, bright, and flexible – a year from now we’ll be able to re-program the fixtures and produce a completely fresh lightshow,” says Randy. “They’re also incredibly powerful; if the rest our lightshow went down for some reason, the Sweeper Beams alone would be enough to fill the venue with light and movement.”

Eight ADJ Vizi Beam Hybrid 2R (moving heads) and two Vizi Roller Beam 2R (innovative 360-degree barrel effects) also play a big part in the setup by providing on-trend beam effects, super-bright output, and low heat output, allowing them to provide incredible effects on the dance-floor the whole night long. “The 2R fixtures are great; they disappear in the ceiling and have a low power draw,” says Randy, “and the 2R lamp is as bright as the sun – a vampire would burn up!”

Holding its own against the 2R fixtures is the Inno Spot Pro, with its wide beam angle working well on the low ceilings and its vibrant colors enhancing the cool, chic atmosphere of the lounge. Randy and Ayyaz specified four of these fixtures and the venue’s management plan to take advantage of the unit’s custom GOBO feature by including Toro Toro GOBOs to enhance the branding of the venue itself. Meanwhile, eight Inno Color Beam Z7s provide exceptional color and a choice of wide wash or narrow beam effects, with the fixtures able to fill the entire room by opening up to their 60-degree beam angle. “The Z7s have a very small footprint, which was important on this job, and are also super-power efficient - we could run the whole show on three 20A circuits,” Randy tells us.

Four of ADJ’s Lightning COB Canons, which use the latest COB LED technology, provided the final piece of the puzzle, giving audiences a mesmerizing strobe effect and adding a buzz to the dance-floor. “We essentially used the Lightning COB Canons to provide bright white light and high-powered strobe effects,” Randy explains. “Compared to traditional strobes, the COB LEDs give a wide dispersion, a different look, and depth of throw - with loads of impact.” During the install, Randy and Ayyaz had limited space to work with, but the Lightning COB Canons were able to tuck away nicely into the ceiling of the super-lounge. Showing the versatility of the fixtures, Randy told us how the COB Canons were also “great for use as house lights at the end of the night, for when the staff are closing down the bar and cleaning up."

Since the install, the reaction of customers has been hugely positive, with the ADJ setup really drawing people to the venue. “The lightshow in the super lounge attracts people by itself; it’s the premier lightshow in the city and people really are blown away by it,” Randy White explains. “Other places just rent in fixtures each week, but having a custom-designed, permanently installed and totally flexible system really sets Toro Toro apart.”

Obviously this increased interest surrounding the venue has pleased the management at RSR, who were apparently “very happy with the lightshow” and so blown away by its impact that they plan on using Inosta Solutions’ ADJ setup as a template for other Toro Toro super lounges.

This success story at Toro Toro DC just goes to show how creativity, teamwork, and versatile products go hand in hand to deliver a unique experience for all involved. You know what they say: many hands make for light work… and the pure lighting excitement in Toro Toro works extremely well indeed.

Toro Toro Super Lounge Gear List:
27x ADJ Sweeper Beam Quad LED
8x ADJ Vizi Beam Hybrid 2R
2x Vizi Roller Beam 2R
8x ADJ Inno Color Beam Z7
4x Lighting COB Cannon
4x ADJ Inno Spot Pro
232 ft. of Elation Professional Flex LED Tape WP
16x Acclaim Lighting Color Ray MR
2x Antari HZ-350 Haze Machines

Designers: Randy White & Ayyaz Rashid
Additional Program: Angel Perez, Arnoldo Offermann
Installation Company: Inosta Solutions
Equipment Supplier: Chuck Levin’s Washington Music

Check out the lightshow at Toro Toro Super Lounge:

For more information Contact ADJ:
U.S. Office - Tel: 800-322-6337/+1-323-582-2650 • Web: www.adj.com