SANTA ANA, CA — High winds and stage collapses at major music festivals during the summer of 2011 have focused attention on insurance coverage, noted to Scott Carroll, executive vice president of Take1 Insurance. “As musicians continue to expand their touring seasons, to make up for lost revenue from declining album sales, it is increasingly important for all parties involved to have specialized insurance in case of an incident, especially for outdoor events,” he said.
“Weather is always a factor in stage design as well as in our insurance risk assessment. As evidenced by several unfortunate incidents this summer, extreme weather is becoming more commonplace, so touring and production companies simply cannot afford to risk not insuring the stage, sound, lighting and video equipment that is often worth into the millions of dollars.”
In recent years music tours large and small have begun using more elaborate staging, often including live cameras, video walls and dozens of lights with elaborate orchestration. Carroll noted that with all of the planning and engineering that go into these stunning stage designs, a comprehensive insurance policy is as important as the equipment itself, citing a claim made by Chaos Visual Productions last year as a case in point.
Carroll emphasized that insurance for an outdoor event is not the same as insurance for a company who sometimes performs or works at outside events. He also noted that as staging systems are upgraded to bring the look and feel of indoor events to the outdoors, the insurance industry needs to study the underwriting issues and learn new questions that need to be addressed, as well as possibly introducing stricter risk mitigation requirements from clients.
Take1’s specialty program has designed inland marine coverage, among other specialty coverages for the entertainment industry, that automatically applies everywhere in the world, without the need for additional riders or endorsements. It eliminates co-insurance, thus protecting 100 percent of the insured value of the equipment covered; provides automatic replacement cost valuation; allows for separate limits in key individual coverage areas like owned equipment, equipment rented from others, equipment in the insured’s Care Custody and Control (CCC), and equipment in transit; flood coverage for equipment in transit; and blanket limits that eliminate the need for clients’ to itemize each and every piece of equipment, cable, LED panel, etc. being covered.
For more information, please visit www.take1insurance.com.
