, and Telecom expertise. Perhaps bridge your knowledge from one field to another, or between all three. INTRODUCTION KEY CONCEPTS AND MODELS The overall approach to the subject relies on the following three models: a "Program Content Food Chain," a Network Interface Device (NID), and a block diagram depicting End-to-End Service. All three models are explained in detail in Chapter 1. Because of their importance though, they are briefly described here as part of the introduction. Figure 1 illustrates the concept of what we call the Program Con- tent Food Chain. Simply a diagram to show three phases most con- tent goes through during its life. Content creation, distribution, and delivery require a vehicle to carry it through all three stages of its life span. These stages are defined as Creation, Distribution, and Delivery. Around the time the industry standardized digital studio systems the terms Contribution and Distribution appeared because a way to distin- guish digitized content from analog transmission was needed. This two-stage model works quite well with analog transmission to the end user or viewer. The Program Content Food Chain model is a further extension of the two-stage model and was conceived to rec- ognize, quantify, and leverage the ability of digital transmission systems to deliver multiple levels of picture quality and sound fidel- ity to the end user or viewer. Content Creation Contribution Quality Content Distribution Distribution Quality Content Delivery Transmission Quality Motion Pictures Syndicated Programs Sports & Speial Events Cable PC TV Theater Commercial Production - Internet - Stations - 100+ Others - Homes Local Public Places Stations - Business PDonaldson / Fhuffman, Nov 1996 FIGURE 1 The Program Content Food Chain Illustrated INTRODUCTION Widespread use of lossy compression techniques to reduce transport bandwidth results in impairment of picture quality and sound fidel- ity as content travels the food chain path. In addition to recognizing the process of creating, distributing, an