Multimedia communications have emerged as a major research and development area. In particular, computers in multimedia open a wide range of possibilities by combining different types of digital media such as text, graphics, audio, and video. The emergence of the World Wide Web (WWW), two decades ago, has fuelled the growth of multimedia computing. Because the number of multimedia users is increasingly daily, there is a strong need for books on multimedia systems and communications. Generally speaking, the books can be divided into two major categories. In the first category, the books are purely technical, providing detailed theories of multimedia engineering with an emphasis on signal processing. In the second category, the books on multimedia are primarily about content creation and management. Today, there is a strong need for books somewhere between these two extremes. This unique book intends to fill this gap by explaining multimedia communications in three areas: applications, middleware, and networking. In this way, the volume will be useful for readers who are carrying out research and development in systems area such as television engineering and storage media. It will also provide readers with the protocol information needed to support a wide variety of multimedia services.