Base officials looked at alternative ways of improving the alert system, English said. After multiple discussions with various vendors, three companies were hired to build the multifaceted system. Burlingame, Calif.-based AtHoc Inc. provided the network alert systems, and Franklin, Tenn.-based Dialogic Communications Corp. provided the telephone alert systems. East Boston, Mass.-based Acoustic Technologies Inc. (ATI) provided the basewide loudspeaker communications system.

The installation of the three systems began in August 2005, and the three vendors worked together to have it up and running a month later. Final testing and configuration was completed in November 2005 and the system was accepted by the base. "Basically, it's been working well since September of last year," English said.

The alerting system is a pilot project at Vance and will likely be adopted in the future at other bases used by the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command, English said. "The system has made the job in the command post a lot easier," he said. "Before, we had to call numerous agencies around the base to notify them, and that took a while."

The contract price for the systems was not disclosed.