Four photomultiplier tubes (two for red, one for green, and one for blue) mounted inside special "scoops" placed in the studio and pointed at the subject would pick up the light from the camera's CRT and produce the final image to be televised.
Normally, with any flying-spot scanned system, the area between the flying-spot CRT and photomultiplier tubes (the whole studio in Vitascan's case) would have to be completely darkened, in order to prevent any other light, besides the light for the flying spot from the CRT, from interfering with the photomultiplier tubes.
Due to this, the system could not be used outdoors because sunlight would interfere during the scanning phase.
From 1956 to 1959, Vitascan cameras were in use at independent television station WITI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for its local TV news programs.
Vitascan, like earlier DuMont technologies such as the Electronicam, failed to catch on.