AV and collaboration

Professional indemnity insurance for video conferencing and AV integrators

Yes, if you design, specify or commission meeting-room and video conferencing systems, you need professional indemnity insurance. When a room you designed echoes so badly the far end gives up, a camera cannot see half the table, or the kit will not join the client’s platform, the loss is financial and the complaint is about your design and advice. Public liability does not cover that: it covers accidental damage and injury, such as drilling through a pipe while mounting a screen. Installers working only to someone else’s design carry less PI risk, but rarely none.

Part of: Professional indemnity for IT professionals

In short

AV integrators are judged on whether a room works as promised: everyone can see the content, hear and be heard, and join calls on the client’s platform. AVIXA publishes standards on display image size, audio coverage, documentation and performance verification that experts reach for. In England, where Part M applies, Approved Document M expects provision for a hearing enhancement system in rooms designed for meetings. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, specifying a fixed AV system can make you a designer. PI usually covers negligent design, specification and advice. Damage and injury during installation belong to public liability, and an attack on your remote management tools needs cyber cover.

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Why AV integration needs PI as well as public liability

Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.

A video conferencing room is a design problem before it is an installation. You choose the display size for the furthest seat, place cameras and microphones, decide how the room joins the client’s meeting platform, and promise it will work with the laptops, network and security settings the client already has. The client buys on the strength of that design and judges it at the first board meeting.

Two different kinds of thing go wrong. Physical accidents, such as a display dropped on a boardroom table or a water pipe drilled through while fixing a bracket, are public liability (PL) claims: accidental damage to property or injury to people. Performance failures are another matter. A room where remote participants cannot hear, a system that will not join the client’s calls, or a project that misses the opening of a new office involves nothing being broken. The complaint is that your design, specification or advice was negligent, and that belongs to professional indemnity (PI).

PI, which insurers often write for technology firms as technology errors and omissions cover, pays defence costs and compensation for those allegations, subject to the terms. Cyber insurance sits alongside it for attacks on your own systems, including the remote management platform that can reach every room you support.

How claims arise for AV integrators

These examples are illustrative, not real claims or outcomes. They show how allegations against AV integrators typically arise.

Echo nobody designed out. You specify ceiling microphones for a glass-walled boardroom with a stone floor and say nothing about the room’s acoustics. Remote participants hear every word twice. The client pays for acoustic panels and different microphones, and alleges you should have surveyed the room or warned it.
The back row cannot read the spreadsheet. A 30-seat training room gets a display sized by eye. Detailed content is unreadable from the back half, and the camera above the screen cannot see a presenter at the lectern. The client claims the cost of a larger display and remounting.
Kit that will not join. You specify room systems certified for one meeting platform, but the client’s group standard is another, and its network security blocks the devices. Rooms sit unused for months while kit is replaced, and the client claims the hardware and lost staff time.
The opening day without rooms. Your programme for a new headquarters assumes stock that turns out to be on long lead times. Rooms are not ready when staff move in, and the client hires temporary equipment and claims it from you.
Recording by default. You configure every room to record and transcribe meetings automatically, as the manufacturer’s default allows. Staff complain they were never told. The client suspends the system, commissions a privacy review and claims the cost, alleging you never advised it what the settings meant.

None of these involves accidental damage. Each is an allegation that you did not show the skill and care expected of a competent AV designer or integrator.

Standards and rules your rooms are judged against

When a room is disputed, experts compare your work with published industry standards and with the building and equality rules your client has to meet.

Standard or rule	What it covers	Why it matters to your PI
ANSI/AVIXA V202.01:2026	Display image size for 2D content: display size and viewing positions for permanent and temporary systems.	Arguments about unreadable content start here.
ANSI/AVIXA A102.01:2022	Parameters for characterising how well a sound system covers listener areas.	Evidence when part of a room cannot hear.
ANSI/AVIXA D402.02:2013 (R2024)	A framework for deciding what to verify in an AV system, when, and how to report it.	A documented verification at handover is your strongest evidence the room worked.
ANSI/AVIXA D401.01:2023	Documentation requirements for AV systems, who creates them and how delivery is tracked.	Scope and as-built disputes turn on documents.
Approved Document M Volume 2, para 4.36 (England)	Where Part M applies, aids to communication meet Requirement M1 if, among other things, provision for a hearing enhancement system is installed in rooms designed for meetings, lectures, classes, performances, spectator sport or films, and induction loop or infrared systems are shown by the standard symbol.	Part M applies to new non-domestic buildings, extensions and material alterations, so a fit-out that ignores it may need rework.
Equality Act 2010, s.20(5) (Great Britain)	Where a disabled person would be put at a substantial disadvantage without an auxiliary aid, the person under the duty must take reasonable steps to provide it.	Employers and service providers rely on your advice when they choose assistive listening.

AVIXA also runs the CTS certifications, including CTS-D for design and CTS-I for installation. They are not a legal requirement, but they are a quick way to show an insurer or client who on your team is qualified to sign off a design.

Where public liability ends and PI begins

Physical damage during installation is a public liability matter, not PI. If your engineer drills through a water pipe fixing a display bracket, scratches a boardroom table or drops a ceiling tile on a visitor, the claim is for accidental damage or injury, and your PL policy answers it. PI is not designed for it and usually excludes it.

The line blurs when something you designed causes physical harm. Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, “design” includes specifications, a designer includes anyone who prepares a design for an electrical system intended for a particular structure, and installing telecommunications, computer or similar services normally fixed within or to a structure is construction work. Designers must take into account the general principles of prevention to eliminate, so far as reasonably practicable, foreseeable risks to people carrying out the work, maintaining or cleaning the structure, or using it as a workplace.

Workmanship or design? A large display that falls because a fixing was never tightened is a PL claim. One that falls because you specified a bracket the partition could never carry may be argued as a design error, so check how each wording treats injury and damage arising from design.
Kit before handover. Equipment damaged or stolen on site before the client accepts the room is a contract works or goods in transit question, not PI.
Kit you supply. A faulty power supply that starts a fire is a product liability claim, with the manufacturer’s warranty as your first route back.

Recording, transcription and privacy

Modern rooms can record, transcribe, frame speakers and count occupants. You switch those features on and set them up, but responsibility for using them lawfully sits mainly with your client as employer. That split is where claims come from: the client relies on your configuration and on what you tell it the system does.

The ICO’s guidance on monitoring workers says employers must make sure workers are aware of how and what personal information is being collected during any monitoring, and must carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) before any processing likely to cause high risk to workers’ and other people’s interests. Its examples of high-risk processing include processing workers’ biometric data.

Agree the defaults in writing. Automatic recording, transcription, storage location and retention should be decisions the client signs off, not manufacturer settings left in place.
Flag the high-risk features. If a system offers face or voice recognition, tell the client it may need a DPIA before you enable it.
Guard your own access. Remote management can reach cameras and microphones in every room you support. Limit who holds those credentials and log their use.
Put your role on paper. If you host recordings or manage rooms as a service, agree in writing what you may do with the data and how you will help if something goes wrong.

A complaint or regulator inquiry after a misconfiguration lands on the client first. If it then alleges your setup or advice was negligent, that is a PI claim, though fines and penalties are commonly excluded. A breach of your management platform is a cyber event.

What PI covers for AV integrators, and what it doesn’t

Usually covered by PI	Often excluded or limited	Needs a different policy
Negligent room design, display sizing and camera and microphone placement	Liquidated damages for late completion, beyond your liability at law	Damage to the building or furniture during installation (public liability)
Specifying kit that is incompatible with the client’s platform, network or security	Promises of performance or fitness for purpose	Injury to visitors on site (public liability) or to your staff (employers’ liability)
Acoustic advice, where you give it	The cost of putting right your own faulty workmanship	Equipment damaged or stolen before handover (contract works or transit cover)
Misconfigured recording, transcription or access settings	Fines and penalties, which PI wordings commonly exclude	Faulty equipment you supplied that causes a fire (product liability)
Programme errors that delay handover	Work outside the business description you declared	An attack on your remote management platform (cyber)
Defence costs, including AV and acoustic experts	Matters you knew could lead to a claim before cover started	Your tools and test equipment (equipment cover)

Everything here depends on the wording and the insurer’s acceptance. If the business description calls you an installer and says nothing about design or configuration, a design claim may fall outside it.

How much cover, and for how long

Fit-out contractors, main contractors and corporate clients usually set the PI limit in the subcontract or framework. Read the insurance clause for the amount, whether it is each and every claim or in the aggregate, and how long you must keep cover after completion. Size the limit to the rooms you design across a whole project, not to a single room.

Late projects. Fit-out programmes often carry liquidated damages. PI may respond to negligence that causes delay, but not to a sum you agreed in advance beyond what you would owe anyway, so read the contract and the wording together.
Support contracts. If you manage rooms after handover, claims can arise years later about changes made remotely. PI is claims-made, so the policy in force when the claim arrives responds. Keep it continuous and protect your retroactive date.
Warranties. Large fit-outs may ask for a collateral warranty to a landlord or tenant. Check it against your policy before you sign: see collateral warranties and PI.

If you stop trading, arrange run-off cover for the rooms you have already designed.

What insurers will ask you

A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:

How your turnover splits between design and consultancy, design and install, install-only to others’ designs, and managed services.
The spaces you work on, such as meeting rooms, boardrooms, lecture theatres, courtrooms and control rooms.
Who in your team holds AVIXA CTS-D or CTS-I or equivalent, and who signs off designs.
Whether you give acoustic advice yourselves or appoint an acoustic consultant.
Your largest project value and typical contract terms, including liquidated damages, fitness for purpose and collateral warranties.
Whether you configure recording, transcription or analytics features, and how you control remote access to client rooms.
Whether you subcontract design or installation, and to whom.
Claims, or incidents that could lead to one, over at least the last five years.

Speak to a broker

PI for video conferencing and AV integrators, placed by a named broker

Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.

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How Apex places this cover

Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.

A short fact-find. We ask what you actually do, for whom, under what contract terms, and what has gone wrong before.
A written presentation to insurers. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you must make a fair presentation of the risk. We help you meet that duty, and a well-presented risk gets better terms.
Quotes you can compare. Limits, excesses, retroactive dates, exclusions and premium side by side, with a plain-English recommendation.
No gap in cover. If you are moving from another insurer or broker, the new policy starts before the old one ends and protects your past work.

Related guides

Sources

Frequently asked

Do video conferencing and AV integrators need professional indemnity insurance?

Yes, if you design, specify, configure or advise on AV and video conferencing systems. A room that does not perform, kit that will not work with the client’s platform or a late handover causes financial loss that public liability does not cover. PI covers those negligence claims and your defence costs, subject to the policy terms.

Is PI a legal requirement for AV integrators?

No law or regulator requires AV integrators to hold PI. In practice main contractors, fit-out firms and corporate clients usually require it in the subcontract or framework agreement, often with a minimum limit and an obligation to keep cover for a number of years after completion.

Does PI cover damage caused while installing a screen?

No. Accidental damage or injury during installation, such as drilling into a pipe or dropping a display, is a public liability claim. PI usually deals with losses caused by your design, specification or advice. If a fixing you specified fails, check how both policies treat damage that results from a design decision.

Does PI cover a room with poor audio or echo?

It can, if the client alleges your design or advice was negligent, for example specifying microphones for a hard, glass-walled room without warning about the acoustics. Record any limits on your survey and any acoustic treatment the client declined. PI does not pay to put right your own faulty workmanship.

Who is responsible for privacy when meeting rooms record calls?

Mainly the client as employer. The ICO says employers must make sure workers know how and what personal information is collected during monitoring. Your job is to configure features as agreed and advise accurately. If a negligent setup causes the client a loss, that may be a PI claim, subject to the policy terms.

Does PI cover late completion of an AV project?

PI may respond where the delay was caused by negligence, such as a design error discovered on site. It usually will not pay liquidated damages beyond what you would owe at law, or delays caused purely by supply shortages. Read your contract and policy wording together before you agree a programme.

Ready to compare cover?

Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for video conferencing and AV integrators across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.

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Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.