The present disclosure relates to providing timing references to multimedia objects that are reference by a separate document that contains elements that particular reference the multimedia objects. The elements are associated with other elements that may be part of another external document. The elements of the external document are grouped in time containers that describe when the elements are to be rendered, which describes when the elements of the separate document are to be rendered, and describes when the multimedia objects are to be rendered. Other documents may receive rendition timing from association with the separate document. An event listener element may be included in the external document that is responsive to events affecting elements in the separate document.