An apparatus and method for time synchronization of a plurality of multimedia streams are described. In one embodiment, the method includes the concurrent capture of multimedia data via a plurality of multimedia platforms. During the concurrent capture of the multimedia data, each of the multimedia platforms receives a synchronization signal from a synchronization generation unit. In response, each platform processes a received synchronization signal to generate a common reference clock signal among each of the platforms. Once the common clock signal is generated, each of the platforms synchronizes captured multimedia data to form multimedia stream data according to the common reference clock signal. As such, the plurality of multimedia platforms are able to perform collaborative signal processing tasks of multimedia streams, including, for example, array signal processing algorithms.