A speech communication system comprising: a speech service compartment for holding one or more system users, the speech service compartment including at least first and second acoustic zones (A, B, C, D) having varying acoustic environments; at least one input microphone within the first acoustic zone that develops microphone input signals from a first system user located in the first acoustic zone; at least one loudspeaker located in the second acoustic zone; and an in-car communication (ICC) system for receiving and processing the microphone input signals, and for forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more of the at least one loudspeakers, the ICC system including: a speaker dedicated signal processing module that controls the processing of the microphone input signal, wherein the speaker dedicated signal processing module is configured to: maximise speech from the first user and minimise signals not generated by speech from the first user; and compensate for the Lombard effect of the first system user by utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the first acoustic zone; the ICC system further comprising a listener specific signal processing module that controls the forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on a determined masking effect of background noise in the second acoustic zone. a speech service compartment for holding one or more system users, the speech service compartment including at least first and second acoustic zones (A, B, C, D) having varying acoustic environments; at least one input microphone within the first acoustic zone that develops microphone input signals from a first system user located in the first acoustic zone; at least one loudspeaker located in the second acoustic zone; and an in-car communication (ICC) system for receiving and processing the microphone input signals, and for forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more of the at least one loudspeakers, the ICC system including: a speaker dedicated signal processing module that controls the processing of the microphone input signal, wherein the speaker dedicated signal processing module is configured to: maximise speech from the first user and minimise signals not generated by speech from the first user; and compensate for the Lombard effect of the first system user by utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the first acoustic zone; the ICC system further comprising a listener specific signal processing module that controls the forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on a determined masking effect of background noise in the second acoustic zone. a speaker dedicated signal processing module that controls the processing of the microphone input signal, wherein the speaker dedicated signal processing module is configured to: maximise speech from the first user and minimise signals not generated by speech from the first user; and compensate for the Lombard effect of the first system user by utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the first acoustic zone; maximise speech from the first user and minimise signals not generated by speech from the first user; and compensate for the Lombard effect of the first system user by utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the first acoustic zone; the ICC system further comprising a listener specific signal processing module that controls the forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on a determined masking effect of background noise in the second acoustic zone. <EOS>