Ayrton Zonda 9 throws a light on Suspekt at Parken Stadium, Copenhagen

Legendary dark and intense Danish hip hop band, Suspekt, appeared in a one-off date at Copenhagen’s 47,000 capacity National Parken Stadium in September. Suspekt is renowned for playing with cool lighting effects and Ayrton was delighted that its Zonda 9 fixtures were chosen for the dramatic lighting system that included 168 Zonda 9 Wash and Zonda 9 FX fixtures.

Zonda 9 Wash is the first luminaire in a new family of Ayrton products devised for stage lighting, equipped with a high-performance 40W LED source with RGB+W additive colour synthesis. The lighting was supplied by VIGSØ, Denmark, and the striking lighting and stage design was provided by Johnny Thinggaard of CMY.

Thinggaard elaborated on his choice of lighting: “The concert was a one-day event and the band’s biggest show to date. I chose to use the Zonda 9 Wash because of its large light surface – I really like the way that the lamp provides such a great visual fill for this type of show. In fact, the entire show was based on the Wash style. Not a single gobo. For me, it is about creating space and emotions – and since this is a hip-hop band, I didn’t think profile lamps would fit the style. I also chose Zonda 9 as I needed a lamp that could light from a height of 20m all the way down to the floor. There is a lot of light in the Zonda 9 and it mixes colours really nicely.”

The strong and colourful design for the show and the rapping, hard-hitting style of the band required some strong, punchy lighting. Arraying the Zonda 9 Washes in 10 pods of 4 x 3 units, plus a row of 48 more on the floor upstage, Thinggaard was not disappointed. “I think in general I am most surprised by how powerful the light output is from Zonda 9. VIGSØ introduced me to the lamps in the warehouse where it is always difficult to see how much light there really is. Seen in relation to the amount of video screen, the fixtures did a great job and performed perfectly.”

Christian Vigsø, CEO of VIGSØ added, “We had a total of 168 pieces of Zonda 9 with a mix of Wash and FX fixtures and, throughout the complete production, we didn’t have to change any fixtures. In addition, we had a request from the production to make the DMX profile for both Zonda 9 Wash and Zonda 9 FX the same. We asked Ayrton to do this and were very impressed that they could present us with a solution in just two days.”