This paper briefly reports the results of some testing activities performed on the efficiency of MPEG documents transmission in the framework of a prototype of a distributed multimedia DBMS's and in presence of real time playout requirements. Tests have been performed on both local and wide- area (Internet) IP based packet switched networks and with respect to different hardware platforms and MPEG flows. The testing aimed at evaluating the applicability of the TCP and UDP transport protocols in this context. Finally a simple prototype of a videoconferencing tool, based on the MPEG compression scheme, has been implemented and its performances have been compared with those achievable, on the same operating environments, by some widely used videoconferencing tools.