LOS ANGELES, CA - May 12, 2026 PRO-TEK Vaults, a leading media preservation and archival storage provider trusted by major studios and media companies for more than 30 years, has opened a newly built nitrate film storage facility in the greater Los Angeles area, expanding one of the most constrained segments of the film preservation infrastructure in the United States.
The facility—one of only a handful of compliant nitrate storage sites nationwide and the first new facility to open in more than a decade—includes 24 vaults with capacity for over 36,000 film reels. Existing nitrate storage facilities in the U.S. have been operating at full capacity, underscoring the urgency for additional compliant infrastructure. The expansion comes as studios, distributors, and archives increasingly return to legacy film libraries for restoration, remastering, and new distribution opportunities across streaming, theatrical re-releases, and international markets.
That renewed focus on film libraries has also become a central factor in media deal-making. As companies reassess the long-term value of owned content, extensive back catalogs are viewed not just as historical assets, but as durable revenue drivers. The importance of the Paramount and Warner Bros. film libraries, for example, has been widely regarded as a key component in recent valuations of those studios.
Nitrate film, widely used in motion picture production prior to 1950, is both historically significant and highly unstable, requiring specialized storage conditions that are difficult and expensive to build and maintain. The barriers to building nitrate-compliant storage—ranging from fire safety requirements to environmental regulation to increasingly stringent construction guidelines—have limited new development.
“The industry has been operating with a shortage of nitrate storage capacity for years,” said Doug Sylvester, CEO of PRO-TEK Vaults. “PRO-TEK is one of the few companies with the technical expertise, passion for preservation, and ability to make a multimillion-dollar investment for a project of this complexity and scale.”
The facility was developed to meet stringent federal, state, and local safety standards governing the storage of hazardous materials, including NFPA 40 requirements specific to nitrate film.
For PRO-TEK’s clients, the demand is not only about storage, but also about access and usability.
“Studios and archives are actively leveraging their film libraries,” said Tim Knapp, COO of PRO-TEK Vaults. “They need access to original source materials to create the highest-quality masters for today’s distribution platforms, from theatrical to streaming. Bringing storage, restoration, and digital workflows together at PRO-TEK reduces risk and makes that process significantly more efficient.”
In addition to storage, the facility offers film inspection and repair, high-resolution scanning, restoration, and digital media services, allowing clients to manage preservation and distribution workflows without transporting fragile materials between vendors.
The expansion reflects a broader shift in how the entertainment industry approaches archival content. Libraries that were once maintained primarily for preservation are now being systematically reactivated—supporting everything from catalog licensing deals and curated streaming channels to anniversary theatrical releases.
By adding new storage in Southern California, close to major studios and post-production facilities, PRO-TEK is positioning itself to serve growing demand for both preservation and the commercial reactivation of film libraries.
About PRO-TEK Vaults
PRO-TEK Vaults, which maintains facilities in Burbank and Thousand Oaks, CA, provides archival storage, media preservation, and digital media services for clients in the entertainment, corporate, and institutional sectors. The company manages film, video, audio, and data assets through climate-controlled facilities and integrated digital workflows, including digitization, LTO storage, and data migration.
For more information, email us at sales@protekvaults.com