Spot on.
Basically since the early days, the way that you 'hang' a session (which machines appear on which channels) is an enormous routing job; historically handled by the same fellow who was employed to shift film and mag stock on sprockets. ('Hanging' a dub is analogous to setting up the I/O routing in Pro-Tools, or plugging up a WALL of synchronized analog multitracks in music mixing)
There are tielines to the control room patchbay, and some local stuff is available there, most specifically for being able to insert rental/'sudden inspiration' gear... although in this particular system, everything is normalled to converters which then feed a digital router. -Patching is pretty limited, although the ABILITY to connect pretty much anything to anything else is important... and the opportunity for a FAST work-around to problems is VITAL.
-The Machine room operators whom I've seen in London were all the best-read and most up-to-date fellas, because they spent most of the day after the initial setup reading the newspaper, waiting for the intercom to crackle into life...
-The intercom setup in that facility is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. -The console has talkback mics at each of the three mix positions (Music, dialog, FX) and three meterbridge speakers; one at each position. Each person has a talkback button to the machine room and another one to the projection booth. -Talkback comes from amplified speakers integrated unobtrusively into the ceiling. Scattered around the machine room racks are talkback 'return' points, with a gooseneck mic and push-to-talk buttons for each of the mix positions. -The last person to call that room is indicated by a flashing LED in the button (which remains flashing after they release their button), so you know WHICH one of them was talking to you... even if you're not familiar with the voices. -When replying, the machine room operator can (from ANY location) see who spoke last, and reply to THAT person alone (via the meterbridge speaker) or to all three. -In addition, there's also a rack-mounted assignable trilogy talkback panel behind them, right above the patchbay in the control room rack. -more 'private' conversations can be handled over a headset if needed...
There's also a 'batphone' for conversations which HAVE to have a certain amount of privacy... like "Don't tell the producer that someone just scratched his Maserati... Keep him occupied and distracted, the guy from the body shop is heading over here RIGHT AWAY and will have the invisible repair completed in about 90 minutes.... If the producer can't be prevented from going into the car park, you HAVE to give me 45 seconds warning, so I can start running!" -or stuff like that.
Keef