Text-to-speech audio segment retrieval

A client computing system, comprising:

• an audio output interface to output audio via one or more audio speakers;
• a communications interface for communication via a communications network;
• a logic subsystem;
• and
• a storage subsystem having instructions stored thereon executable by the logic subsystem to:
• send to a server system via the communications interface a presentation request for an audio presentation of electronic communications;
• receive from the server system via the communications interface a manifest indicating a plurality segment-specific retrieval locations in which a different one of the plurality of segment-specific retrieval locations is indicated for each of a plurality of text-to-speech audio segments of the audio presentation;
• for each of the plurality of text-to-speech audio segments:
• identify a presentation order of the text-to-speech audio segment within the audio presentation;
• send to the server system via the communications interface a segment request for the text-to-speech audio segment at the segment-specific retrieval location for that text-to-speech audio segment;
• receive from the server system via the communications interface the text-to-speech audio segment responsive to the segment request for that text-to-speech audio segment;
• and
• output via the audio output interface the text-to-speech audio segment in the identified presentation order.

A method performed by a server system of one or more servers, the method comprising:

• for each of a plurality of electronic communications:
• performing text-to-speech conversion of the electronic communication to obtain a text-to-speech audio segment for that electronic communication, and
• storing the text-to-speech audio segment at a segment-specific retrieval location of the server system as one of a plurality of text-to-speech audio segments of the plurality of electronic communications;
• generating a manifest indicating a plurality of segment-specific retrieval locations in which a different one of the plurality of segment-specific retrieval locations is indicated for each of the plurality of text-to-speech audio segments;
• receiving a presentation request for an audio presentation of the plurality of text-to-speech audio segments of the plurality of electronic communications from a remote computing system;
• sending the manifest indicating the plurality of segment-specific retrieval locations to the remote computing system;
• receiving from the remote computing system a segment request for a text-to-speech audio segment at a segment-specific retrieval location of the plurality of segment-specific retrieval locations;
• responsive to the segment request, retrieving the text-to-speech audio segment from the segment-specific retrieval location;
• and
• sending the text-to-speech audio segment retrieved from the segment-specific retrieval location to the remote computing system over the network connection.