Synchronous playback of time-based media received from one or more locations remote from a primary editing/mixing studio is achieved by time-stamping media samples with a local presentation time before streaming them to the primary studio. At the primary studio, samples having the same presentation timestamp are played back at the same time, independently of the samples' arrival time at the playback system. Media stored locally to the playback system may also be included as part of the synchronous playback using locally computed presentation times. In order to accommodate media streaming transmission delays, the playback system negotiates a suitable delay with the remote systems such that samples corresponding to a given presentation time are received at the playback system from remote locations prior to playback of media corresponding to the given presentation time.