In 1998, SC24, the subcommittee of ISO/IEC JTC 1 concerned with computer graphics and image processing, completed work on a new standard for multimedia presentation; the PREMO standard (Presentation Environment for Multimedia Objects) is published under the official reference ISO/IEC 14478. PREMO essentially provides a middleware specification for multimedia programming - more generally it also serves as a reference model for distributed multimedia. This book does not attempt to replace the official standard but provides a readable version of the basic concepts, presents some features of the PREMO objects in detail, highlights the reasons for specific design decisions, and gives simple examples and motivation claryfying the underlying concepts. A particularly helpful feature is that the authors provide detailed specifications of the PREMO objects in Java. Mainly for students and professionals who need to improve their understanding of the issues involved in distributed multimedia.