Use of voice-to-remaining audio (VRA) in consumer applications

A movie theatre system that outputs a motion picture to each of a plurality of listeners in a manner that permits individualized audio volume adjustment for the plurality of listeners located in an audience of the movie theatre environment, comprising:

• a video device that displays the video portion of the motion picture to the audience;
• a speaker system that emits the corresponding audio portion of the motion picture to the audience;
• one or more elements of a storage medium that stores the video portion of the motion picture, the corresponding audio portion of the motion picture, a first audio signal being substantially a vocal signal and having one or more channels of spatial information, and a second audio signal including substantially audio content other than the audio content of the first audio signal and having one or more channels of spatial information;
• a transmitter that transmits the first and second audio signals from the one or more elements of the storage medium in synchronization with the transmission of the video portion and the corresponding audio portion of the motion picture, to a plurality of personal listening devices, wherein each of the plurality of personal listening devices is associated with each of the plurality of listeners in the theatre audience, and each of the personal listening devices comprises:
• a first receiver that receives the transmitted first audio signal independently of the speaker system;
• a second receiver that receives transmitted second audio signal independently of the speaker system;
• a first adjustment device that adjusts the first audio signal based on inputs from the user;
• a second adjustment device that adjusts the second audio signal based on inputs from the user;
• an audio signal combining device that combines the first audio signal's spatial information channels with corresponding spatial information channels of the second audio signal, to produce a combined audio signal;
• and
• one or more transducers that receives the combined audio signal, converts the combined audio signal to sounds, and outputs the sounds so they may be heard by each of the plurality of listeners associated with each of the plurality of personal listening devices in the theatre audience;
• wherein the system permits each of the plurality of listeners to adjust the first and second audio signals independently of other ones of the plurality of listeners in the audience.