Distributed multimedia applications make use of high-speed networks to transmit data units. Processing of multimedia data is done at end-systems. Appropriate support is required to provide for integrated processing and communicating of multimedia data streams and for efficient development of distributed multimedia applications. It is given by a middleware layer which uses services of operating systems and networks and enriches them by protocols and mechanisms to offer multimedia system services including multimedia communication, resource reservation, synchronization and configuration management. By that, the gap between system services of general purpose operating systems and the requirements of developing distributed multimedia applications is closed. The CINEMA (Configurable INtEgrated Multimedia Architecture) system is such a middleware layer which offers abstractions to develop arbitrarily structured multimedia applications and provides protocols and mechanisms to control them. Its multimedia system services are accessible via easy-to-use interfaces.