IMES storage facility in Paris, France

Courtesy of IMES

Media preservation and archive firm Iron Mountain Entertainment Services (IMES) has opened a brand new facility in a suburb of Paris on Thursday because it continues its world enlargement.

IMES’ mission has been described as serving as a Fort Knox to safeguard and protect firms’ digital and bodily archival belongings. Its purchasers embrace studios, networks, media firms, estates, actors, musicians and athletes. Especially within the digital age, it’s pitching itself as a associate for firms to protect, retailer and digitally restore their “archival goldmine” that can be utilized or licensed for brand spanking new functions – from movies and information footage to music movies and performances.

For instance, IMES’ web site mentions how the documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, produced by White Horse Pictures, debuted on HBO in December 2020. “The IMES team digitized and transferred historic Bee Gees video from the early ’70s through the mid-’80s, including interviews, home movies and various TV performances, as well as a film format concert,” the positioning touts.  “Overall, the team transferred 200 videotapes in various obsolete formats, 40 audio cassettes and 23 film transfers of Regular 8 and Super 8 format.”

Or take the fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop this 12 months for example. “Digital preservation is an example of how we make sure it’s here for the next 50, and that the first 50 are not only safe but helping shape the next 50, 100-plus years,” an IMES consultant tells THR.

An enlargement across the globe to assist current and add new purchasers has due to this fact been a part of IMES’ technique, which the brand new French cupboard space is persevering with. Last 12 months, for instance, the corporate added three websites within the U.Okay., citing “growing demand” from “both new and existing customers.”

The agency mentioned that its seventeenth facility, within the Paris suburb of Pantin, might be its most state-of-the-art location in France, “offering international media clients greater access to asset preservation services.” It consists of climate-controlled media storage and personal vaults, one thing not obtainable on the agency’s different European websites.

“We are thrilled to be opening our newest media storage facility in Paris at a time when our entertainment clients are actively mining their content archives for monetization opportunities,” mentioned Hanna Balouka, IMES’ head of gross sales, France.

“For over 20 years we have trusted IMES to archive and preserve our most valuable physical assets, and that relationship has evolved to help us in transforming our assets from physical to digital to ensure the long-term relevance of our content for future generations of fans,” Albert Sellem, director of operations at French media conglomerate Vivendi’s pay TV big Canal+, considered one of IMES’ purchasers, tells THR. “Their innovative digitization processes provide quick-turn access to content with the highest quality standard.”

IMES, for instance, touts its “Smart Vault” capabilities, which permit purchasers to retailer belongings digitally and entry metadata they should mine and monetize their belongings for future initiatives.

The firm additionally plans to push into NFTs sooner or later. “Over the past year, we have been exploring new NFT-centric business opportunities and are actively designing, prototyping and testing new offerings designed for the entertainment and fine art industries,” its web site says.