In this paper we highlight major technical requirements for designing and developing future distributed multimedia information system using Internet technology. The key requirements of this system are to allow users to access and search and to communicate multimedia documents consisting of text, audio, video, and image. We emphasize the role of object-oriented technology for information management and real-time communication protocols to guarantee QoS.We present a reference architecture for Web-based real-time distributed multimedia system which integrates enabling technologies including real-time streaming, multimedia indexing and searching, and distributed object management.