The linking together of systems in a linear manner. In digital television this often refers to the concatenation of compression systems which is a subject of concern because any compression beyond about 2:1 results in the removal of information that cannot be recovered. As the use of compression increases, so too does the likelihood that material will undergo a number of compressions between acquisition and transmission. Although the effects of one compression cycle might not be very noticeable, the impact of multiple decompressions and recompressions – with the material returned to baseband in between – can cause considerable damage. The damage is likely to be greatest where different compression schemes are concatenated in a particular signal path.