transport process requires multiple vehicles and transfer points depending on volume. It's likely the content may be handed off in compressed form. If it's not handed off in compressed form, the first step after hand-off is prob- ably compression. At this point, the content is either stored or trans- mitted. Sometimes both happen. It's almost certainly subject to degradation because of the effects of lossy compression. Distribution quality as a term has been around for many years as well, and has been used to characterize quality in what is defined in the food chain model as two separate and entirely different stages. Content delivery is the third and final stage in the food chain model. This is the point where content is handed off to the end user or target audience. It's almost guaranteed to be in compressed form and must be decompressed before being used. This is true for live, 1 BASIC FUNDAMENTALS, DEFINITIONS, AND KEY TERMS real-time transport or in a file transfer or non-real time. This is the point where it's decompressed the last time before it's used or trans- mitted to the viewer or target audience, thus the label transmission quality. Why the food chain model? It is important to recognize some basics. First, program content will have experienced compression- decompression at least once, perhaps several times as it moves through the food chain. Second, the compression process is at best a mix of lossless and lossy, or more likely, all lossy. Lossy compression simply means information bits are thrown away in the compression process, and unrecoverable in the decompression process. For example, a given group of bits making up all the bytes in a television (TV) frame won't be the same when it's decompressed. Lossless compression on the other hand is a controlled and intentional pro- cess. It ensures bit-for-bit replication of the original source material, each and every time the compression and decompression process takes place. Picture quality and sound fidelity of the delivered content are dir- ectly rela