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5:
Any member of the public who wishes to receive broadcast
programmes, television or sound, transmitted by radio waves through
the ether must use a receiver. In the case of television he needs a
receiver and such aerial apparatus as may be necessary to feed a good
picture signal into it. If he lives in an area served by a relay
operator he has two choices. He may buy or rent his individual
aerial, which will probably be erected on the roof of the house he
occupies and which will be connected by a cable to his receiver, or he
may subscribe for the use of an aerial erected by the relay operator
and designed to serve many buildings with which it will be connected
by cables which feed the picture signals into individual receivers.
One such master aerial can serve all the homes in a large town.
b.
Thus it will be seen that the only function performed by
a relay operator is to receive the wireless programmes and to distribute
them from a special aerial by means of a system of cables and wires to
the homes and receivers of those members of the public who subscribe for
the facility which he provides. As stated above he is doing no more
than providing the public with an alternative means of receiving
wireless sound and television programmes.
*
7. It is interesting to note that, in a recent decision in
America dealing with a CATV relay system, Fortnightly Corp. v. United
Artists 1968 June 17, Mr. Justice Stewart, in giving the majority
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, said this,
"Essentially, a CATV system no more than enhances the viewer's capacity
to receive the broadcaster's signals; it provides a well-located antenna
with an efficient connection to the viewer's television set. It is true
that a CATV system plays an "active" role in making reception possible in
a given area, but so do ordinary television sets and antennas. CATV
equipment is powerful and sophisticated, but the basic function the
equipment performs is little different from that performed by the
equipment generally furnished by a television viewer".
* CATV (commercial antenna television) is the accepted American term for
relay.
2.