Audio-on-demand communication system

A method of controlling the transmission of an audio data stream including a plurality of stop markers, and a plurality of acknowledge markers interleaved between said stop markers, said method comprising the steps of:

• sending said acknowledge markers from a first location to a second location;
• receiving said acknowledge markers at said second location;
• generating an acknowledge signal and sending said acknowledge signal to said first location upon receiving said acknowledge marker;
• and
• continuing sending data past said stop marker if said acknowledge marker is received at said first location.

A method of regulating the flow of compressed audio data between an audio server and a subscriber PC in an audio-on-demand system, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing compressed audio data as audio data blocks within an audio data memory bank;
• including an acknowledge marker in a plurality of said blocks;
• including a stop marker in a plurality of said blocks wherein each of said stop markers is preceded by one of said acknowledge markers and wherein said stop markers have corresponding acknowledge markers;
• transmitting said blocks from said audio server to said subscriber PC until said audio server detects one of said stop markers;
• receiving said blocks at said subscriber PC;
• transmitting an acknowledge signal from said subscriber PC to said audio server whenever said subscriber PC receives one of said acknowledge markers;
• and
• continuing transmission of said blocks from said audio server to said subscriber PC despite the reading of a stop marker whenever said audio server receives an acknowledge signal corresponding to the stop marker.