Providing streaming media data

A system for servicing a request from a client system for a streaming media object, comprising:

• at least one stream director node that is configured to:
• receive a request for a streaming media object at the stream director node;
• locate a stream engine node to which or from which the streaming media object is to be transferred;
• verify that sufficient system resources are available to service request;
• prepare a data transfer path between the stream engine node and the client system that made the streaming media request, the stream director node not being included in the data transfer path and the data transfer path including one or more resources along the path;
• cause resources along the prepared path to be reserved for use by the data transfer;
• pass the request for the streaming media object from the stream director node to the located stream engine node for servicing;
• and
• transfer, over the prepared path, data comprising the streaming media object between the client system that made the request and the located stream engine node;
• and
• at least one stream engine node for storing streaming media objects including the requested streaming media object, the stream engine node being configured to:
• receive the request for a streaming media object and
• transfer, over the prepared path, data comprising the streaming media object between the stream engine node on which the object resides and the client system that made the request.