A client-server architecture for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applications, includes: (a) a client-side including: a client being part of distributed front end for converting acoustic waves to feature vectors; VAD for separating between speech and non-speech acoustic signals; adaptor for WebSockets; and (b) a server side including: a web layer utilizing HTTP protocols and including a Web Server having a Servlet Container; an intermediate layer for transport based on Message-Oriented Middleware being a message broker; a recognition server and an adaptation server both connected to said intermediate layer; a Speech processing server; a Recognition Server for instantiation of a recognition channel per client; an Adaptation Server for adaptation acoustic and linguistic models for each speaker; a Bidirectional communication channel between a Speech processing server and client side; and a Persistent layer for storing a Language Knowledge Base connected to said Speech processing server.