LD Steve Kosiba Provides Behind-the-Scenes Insights on ADJ’s LDI 2024 Lightshow

ADJ utilized an impressive time-coded lightshow to highlight a selection of its latest fixture offerings and brand new product releases at the recent LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas. For the second consecutive year, the show was designed and programmed by experienced concert LD Steve Kosiba. In this behind-the-scenes feature, Steve discusses his creative process and shares his thoughts on some of fixtures that starred in the show.

Following the success of last year’s ADJ booth at LDI, it was an easy decision for the company’s Sales Director, Alfred Gonzales, to invite Steve Kosiba back to program this year’s lightshow. Steve was equally enthusiastic to accept the offer, confident that he could raise the already high bar set the previous year. Steve is a partner at Squeek Lights, the concert lighting specialists based in New Jersey, where he designs and programs for concerts, engineers custom touring deck packages, and takes care of the literal nuts and bolts of the operation.  He has previous experience at Starlite Productions, Frost Productions NY, The TLA, Union Transfer, and World Cafe Live.

In designing the 2024 ADJ LDI booth, Steve once again worked collaboratively with ADJ’s in-house Trade Show Manager, Charlotte Wester, who is a college-educated lighting professional with extensive industry experience. Charlotte discussed with Steve which new fixtures would be making their debut at the show, as well as which recently released products should be showcased. Once Steve had produced his initial design, Charlotte translated it into Vectorworks to create the required technical drawings. She then carried out the necessary calculations for rigging, as well as power and signal distribution, and provided Steve with a full patch list of the fixtures ready for programming. To build the rig on site, Charlotte brought in Stage-Tech out of Santa Fe Springs, CA. The production company’s professional team pre-rigged the trusses and then efficiently assembled them on site ready for Steve to finalize the programming of the time-coded lightshow using an NX4 console from ADJ’s sister company Obsidian Control Systems. In addition, the video content was controlled through and stored on Arkaos Media Master products.

“I started the design process by looking at what we did for last year’s booth and thinking about trends in the industry – concert tours that are out right now – and how we could not only raise the bar from last year but really showcase these fixtures in the way they would be used on a touring rig,” explains Steve. “I landed on a design built around a pair of angled trusses – which I think worked well because they drew people’s attention into the booth. I also really wanted to show off the Jolts to their full potential, so we double lined both angled trusses as well as the central straight truss with Jolt Bars and then created a four-by-four grid of Jolt Panels upstage center. This really showed the fixtures off in the best way possible, truly demonstrating what they are capable of.”

Two rows of five Jolt Bar FX2 fixtures lined each of the three feature trusses, making for a total fixture count of 30. Sixteen Jolt Panel FX2 units created the backdrop grid, rigged to four ladder trusses made up of DuraTruss Quick Grids hanging from the upstage side of the master grid. These were interspersed by two rows of Encore LP32IP LED wash panel fixtures as well as a row of clusters of four Saber Spot RGBL LED pin spots. Each row of Jolt Panel fixtures were fitted with a different filter option – which easily slide into a dedicated slot and lock into position – further demonstrating their versatility.

Two of the new luminaires making their debut at LDI 2024 were the Hydro Flex L7 and Hydro Flex L19 – powerful LED wash-zoom units joining ADJ’s popular Hydro Series of IP65-rated moving heads. Six of the smaller L7 model took centerstage across the middle of the central feature truss, while pairs of the larger model sat at either side as part of a second row of fixtures.

“Of the new products launched at the show, one of the stand-out fixtures for me was the Hydro Flex L7,” enthuses Steve. “There were only six of ‘em up there but they really punched through and held their own in a very busy rig. This IP65-rated version offers a significant improvement to the lens presence of the original Focus Flex; it is much more prominent when the cells are lit and creates a beautiful effect. On top of that, the red, green, blue and lime color mixing is just phenomenal with those 60-Watt chips. It takes the idea of a seven-cell compact wash light – that everyone has – and elevates it so that it truly stands apart. I really love it!”

Another recent addition to the Hydro Series, the Hydro Hybrid was also an integral part of the lightshow. Offering huge versatility, it can serve interchangeably as a beam, spot or wash. Packed with output-shaping tools – including CMY color mixing, an animation wheel, and dual-plane prisms – it delivers huge creative potential to lighting designers and offers exceptional ROI for rental/production companies.

“That thing is just a Swiss army knife,” comments Steve on the Hydro Hybrid. “It’s got everything! I really like the prisms, the CMY color mixing is great, and I think they did a great job on the GOBO load – both the rotating and static patterns are perfect for this light. Also, since it was first announced last year, an animation wheel has been added. In fact, there are four fixtures on the booth that have them [also Hydro Profile, Hydro Spot 2 and Focus Spot 7Z and they are all pretty much the same, so you can run them together and get a nicely cohesive look. Which means bringing a mixture of those fixtures into inventory would let you maintain consistency across different fixture types.”

Launched at last year’s LDI, the Vizi Beam CMY combines immensely powerful output with an extensive collection of beam-shaping features. Lighting Designers can unlock a spectrum of possibilities with CMY color mixing, while high performance 3-phase pan and tilt motors enable lightning-fast movement as well as extreme precision. A total of 24 of these fixtures were spread across Steve’s rig design, showcasing how they might be utilized for a touring show.

“I clustered the Vizi Beam CMYs at various points across the rig, which I think really demonstrated that fixture in the way it is likely to be used on the road,” explains Steve. “Each cluster had four fixtures, drawing inspiration from the old school ACL bar and bringing that older rock ‘n’ roll look into the future with an automated beam fixture with exceptional color mixing and great CTO. You also have two prisms, which you can combine and counterrotate to generate a very cool effect that I call the ‘chainsaw’! Then the beam itself is piercingly bright, so it’s just all-round a really nice light.”

Another dedicated beam fixture showcased on the rig was the Vizi Beam RX2. Released earlier in the year, this upgrade of ADJ’s best-selling Vizi Beam RXONE is an extremely compact unit that packs a serious punch. It offers an extra rotating prism, motorized focus, 3-phase pan/tilt motors and Aria X2 wireless connectivity in addition to all the features and functionality of the original model.

“This was my first time working with the Vizi Beam RX2 and I was impressed by how bright it is considering its extremely compact size,” opines Steve. “I had various friends from the production industry stop by the booth and ask, ‘what are those bright beams coming from those tiny fixtures?’ It underlined the fact that arc lamps really do still have a place in the industry right now, with a beam fixture in particular, you just can’t get that kind of piercing output from an LED. With a really nice feature set under the hood, the RX2 is sure to prove very popular – especially for club installations and similar applications.”

Featuring more than 200 ADJ fixtures, the lightshow provided a fantastic showcase of the potential offered by ADJ’s versatile catalog of professional entertainment lighting fixtures. Thanks to a combination of Steve’s creative vision and programming skill, Charlotte’s product knowledge and technical expertise, and the hard work of the Stage-Tech and ADJ tradeshow teams, ADJ’s LDI 2024 lightshow achieved the goal of raising the bar set last year. Throughout the entire duration of trade show, crowds regularly filled the aisles around the ADJ booth to take in the spectacle. While it undoubtedly had to be seen in person to be fully appreciated, if you missed the show, you can experience the next best thing by watching the video below which captures the whole thing from start to finish.

Lighting Designer: Steve Kosiba
Tradeshow Manager: Charlotte Wester
Production Company: Stage-Tech www.stage-tech.com
Photography: Eddie Short

Fixture List:
30 x Jolt Bar FX2
26 x Focus Flex L7
24 x Vizi Beam CMY
24 x Pixie Curve 60
18 x Vizi Beam RX2
17 x Focus Spot 7Z
16 x Jolt Panel FX2
16 x Saber Spot RGBL
13 x Hydro Hybrid
13 x ElectraPix Bar 16
8 x Ultra Beam Bar 12CW
8 x Hydro Spot 2
8 x Hydro Flex L19
8 x Encore LP32IP
8 x Encore LB15IP
6 x Hydro Flex L7
4 x Hydro Profile
4 x Focus Flex L19
4 x Vizi Pix Z19
4 x UV Par IP
3 x Focus Wash 400
50 x EVS3 LED video panels
50 x EVS3 FLEX video panels
1 x Obsidian Control Systems NX4
16 x Avante Audio Imperio Pro IMP205 mini line array modules
4 x Avante Audio Imperio Pro IMP118 subwoofers
Accu-Cable cabling