A couple of weeks back MetaGeek had the pleasure of being a sponsor at the first wireless-specific Tech Field Day put on by Gestalt IT. The concept behind the event is simple: have the innovative IT companies in the wireless space give an in-depth technical presentation and demo to about a dozen independent IT bloggers and journalist types (the delegates). This gives the companies a chance to really show off their products, and to get awesome feedback from people that aren’t afraid to ask the difficult questions. And, what’s really cool is that these delegates all have ‘day jobs’ as wireless IT pros, and have each logged countless hours of wireless troubleshooting in the trenches.

We were given a last-minute opportunity to become a sponsor after another sponsor backed out about a week before the event, so naturally we jumped at the chance. The other vendors that presented were: Cisco, AirMagnet, Fluke, HP, and Aerohive, all much larger companies than MetaGeek! Luckily we were the first company to present 🙂 Trent and I started off with the story of how MetaGeek got started, and then jumped into demoing Chanalyzer Pro for Wi-Fi troubleshooting. The main features that we covered were: adjustable duty cycle threshold, playback waterfall navigation, unified time segment, and report builder

It was fun and rewarding to be able to spend two hours diving into the nitty gritty details that make Wi-Spy DBx + Chanalyzer Pro such an awesome tool for troubleshooting RF interference. Most of the delegates already owned a Wi-Spy, so they were familiar with the basics of what we do, but were surprised at how much better Chanalyzer Pro is for quick troubleshooting and reporting than previous versions of Chanalyzer have been. Also, it was super cool to meet these guys and have face-to-face conversations about wireless in general and receive compliments from these pros regarding the recent advancements we’ve built into Chanalyzer 🙂

Here are a few twitter mentions from the delegates during our presentation:

A configurable threshold for Duty Cycle! I LOVE that feature! Way to go @MetaGeek #TechFieldDay – RevolutionWi-Fi Andrew vonNagy

The @MetaGeek team is showing us a weird Soundolier interferer! Spectrum stories are always unique. #TechFieldDay – RevolutionWi-Fi Andrew vonNagy

I’m really digging this MetaGeek presentation. Spectrum analysis is REALLY interesting stuff. #TechFieldDay – matthewnorwood Matthew Norwood

Good point by Metageek, SpecAn in mobile tools still necessary even if APs have them built in to help locate device that is interfering – wifikiwi Chris Lyttle

A super bonus to Tech Field Day is that several of the delegates gave reviews of Wi-Spy Chanalyzer after our presentation. Here are the links:

• Wireless Tech Field Day – MetaGeek (Andrew VonNagy)
• MetaGeek Gestalt IT Wireless Tech Field Day (George Stefanick)
• Hands on with the MetaGeek Wi-Spy DBx (Sam Clements)
• Tech Field Day – MetaGeek (Tom Hollingsworth)
• Day One Wireless Tech Field Day (Jennifer Huber)
• Live Blog Wireless Tech Field Day (Greg Ferro)