The utilization of new emerging standards such as MPEG-7 is expected to be a major breakthrough for content-based multimedia data retrieval. The main features of the MPEG standards series and of related standards, formats and protocols are presented. It is discussed, how they, despite their partially early and immature stage, can best be utilized to yield effective results in the context of a knowledge management environment. Complementary to that, the current status and state of the art in content-based retrieval for images, video and audio content is briefly presented. In the context of the KNOW-Center we are developing a prototype platform to implement a user friendly and highly informative access to audiovisual content as a potential component for a future knowledge management system. The technical requirements and the system architecture for the prototype platform are described.