y'know, it was probably just a wire in a really weird protective insulator that was smushy like a hose and my youthful imagination just decided it must be pneumatic because... idunno, because kids are dumb! It was "portable", so the tape recorder part of it could be carried like a massive heavy purse, along with it's gigantic camera that could be plugged into it. I think they used it that way exactly once, carried around anyway, because the battery was huge and died quickly and... well yeah. The camera had zoom and pause on it, though... but I'm thinking the squishy remote pause button might have been sort of for remote starting and stopping of the camera, for weird gross 70s people filming themselves doing... something.