The new technology required new editing suites, and Musuri camera operator Diercks turned to a small nearby 6-man workshop named Steenbeck.
The subsequent success of previously shunned 16mm for TV program gathering facilitated by the pilotone system turned Steenbeck into a multinational corporation.
The new technology of pilottone was brought to international attention by its use by Richard Leacock, former cameraman of filmmaker Robert Flaherty, in his documentary feature Primary (1960), documenting the competing Democratic presidential nominee candidates Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy.
Diercks himself helped the spread of pilottone in the USA when he was the only Western reporter allowed to shoot in Havana during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.
The initial approach involved utilizing a microphone cable to connect a motion picture camera to an audio recorder, such as those manufactured by Stellavox or Nagra.
This method has since been supplanted by the incorporation of a crystal oscillator within the audio recorder, which generates the 60 Hz signal, in conjunction with a crystal-controlled camera motor.
The hour:minute:second: frame readout that the timecode provides allows the film transferred to tape digital, or video precise matching of picture and sound.