System and method for scaleable streamed audio transmission over a network

A method for supplying digital audio files to a recipient, the recipient having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate, the audio files being configured into individual audio data blocks wherein each audio data block contains a certain number of bits of digital audio data sampled at an input sampling rate, the method comprising the following steps:

• storing multiple versions of an audio file, each version of the audio file being configured in audio data blocks of different block sizes and produced using different input sampling rates, wherein the block size represents a number of data bits contained within an individual audio data block;
• choosing an appropriate version of the audio file that has a block size and an input sampling rate which produces a bit stream bit rate that is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the recipient's modem;
• and
• transmitting the audio data blocks at the bit stream bit rate to the recipient's modem.

A method for supplying digital audio files to a recipient, the recipient having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate. the method comprising the following steps:

• storing an audio file in uncompressed format;
• configuring the audio file into individual audio data blocks in real-time wherein each audio data block contains a selected number of bits of digital audio data sampled at a selected input sampling rate, the selected number of bits and the selected input sampling rate determining a bit stream bit rate that is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the recipient's modem;
• and
• transmitting the audio data blocks at the bit stream bit rate to the recipient's modem.

A method for transmitting multiple digital audio files concurrently to a recipient, the recipient having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate, the method comprising the following steps:

• performing for each digital audio file the following steps:
• configuring the audio file into individual audio data blocks, each audio data block containing a certain number bits of digital audio data sampled at an input sampling rate;
• selecting a block size for the audio data blocks from among a set of available block sizes and an input sampling rate from among a set of available input sampling rates that determine a bit stream bit rate, the block size representing the number of bits of digital audio data in an individual audio data block;
• said selecting step selecting the block size and the input sampling rate for each audio file which ensure that a total bit stream bit rate made up of combined bit stream bit rates of all digital audio files is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the recipient's modem;
• and
• transmitting the audio data blocks for each audio file at the bit stream bit rate to the recipient's modem.

An audio file distribution system comprising:

• a client computing unit having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate;
• an audio file database to store multiple versions of an audio file, each version of the audio file being configured in audio data blocks of different block sizes and produced using different input sampling rates, wherein block size represents a number of data bits contained within an individual audio data block;
• and
• an audio server to select an appropriate version of the audio file that has a block size and an input sampling rate which produces a bit stream bit rate that is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the client's modem, the audio server retrieving the appropriate version from the audio file database and supplying the audio file to the client computing unit.

An audio file distribution system comprising:

• a client computing unit having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate;
• an audio file database to store an audio file in uncompressed format;
• and
• an audio server to encode the audio file into individual audio data blocks in real-time wherein each audio data block contains a selected number of bits of digital audio data sampled at a selected input sampling rate, the selected number of bits and the selected input sampling rate determining a bit stream bit rate that is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the client's modem.

An audio file distribution system comprising:

• a client computing unit having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate;
• an audio file database to store an audio file;
• and
• an audio server to supply the audio file as individual audio data blocks which contain a certain number of bits of digital audio data that have been sampled at a selected sampling rate, the audio server having a size/rate lookup table listing various combinations of the number of bits and the sampling rates indexed with associated encoded bit stream bit rates, the audio server being configured to select the number of bits and the sampling rate using the size/rate lookup table so that the associated encoded bit stream bit rate is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the client's modem.

An audio file distribution system comprising:

• a client computing unit having a modem operating to receive digital data at an effective bit rate;
• an audio file database to store a plurality of audio files;
• and
• an audio server to retrieve multiple audio files from the audio file database and encode the audio files as individual audio data blocks which contain a certain number bits of digital audio data that have been sampled at a selected sampling rate wherein the number of bits of digital data and the sampling rate are selected to provide an encoded bit stream bit rate that is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the client's modem;
• and
• the client computing unit is configured to decode the audio data blocks into audio frames, mix the audio frames, and reproduce sound from the audio frames.

A communication system comprising:

• first and second communication units, each communication unit being equipped with a modem operating to receive and transmit data at an effective bit rate;
• a network interconnecting the first and second communication units;
• said first communication unit being configured to supply the effective bit rate of the modem for the first communication unit to the second communication unit;
• said second communication unit being configured to determine a smallest effective bit rate from between the effective bit rates for the modems of the first and second communication units and to send the smallest effective bit rate back to the first communication unit;
• said first and second communication units being configured to generate digital audio samples representative of an audio signal at a selected input sampling rate, the first and second communication units being equipped with an audio coder/decoder having multiple quantizers that encode the digital audio samples into various sized audio data blocks which contain various quantities of bits of the audio samples, said first and second communication units using an appropriate input sampling rate and selecting an appropriate quantizer to encode the audio samples into audio data blocks that yield an encoded bit stream bit rate less than or equal to the smallest effective bit rate of the modems;
• and
• said first and second communication units exchanging the audio data blocks over the network.

A method for supplying digital audio files to a recipient, the recipient having a modem to receive digital data at an effective bit rate, the audio files being configured into individual audio data blocks wherein each audio data block has a block size, which represents a number bits of digital audio data, and an input sampling rate, which represents the sample rate at which the digital audio data is sampled, the method comprising the following steps:

• storing various combinations of block sizes and sampling rates in a table;
• selecting a block size and a sampling rate from the table that yield an encoded bit stream bit rate is less than or equal to the effective bit rate of the recipient's modem;
• and
• supplying the audio file at the encoded bit stream bit rate.