Trent Cutler of MetaGeek demonstrates Wi-Spy at WFD2

Ryan Woodings introduces the history of MetaGeek, and Trent Cutler demonstrates the latest developments in their wireless capture product line.

At Wireless Field Day 2, Ryan Woodings opened the presentation by sharing the origin story of MetaGeek and the development of its first Wi-Spy product in 2005. Originally a hobbyist project during his time at a large corporation, Wi-Spy became the foundation of MetaGeek as a self-funded company. The company has since experienced significant growth, moving into a new Boise office and expanding to 21 employees. MetaGeek’s product line has evolved substantially, offering much more advanced and user-friendly software than its early days. Ryan introduced Trent Cutler, who oversees tech support and customer education, to walk through the live demonstrations of MetaGeek’s tools.

Trent showcased the redesigned Insider network scanning software, highlighting new filtering options for SSIDs, channels, and security types, greatly enhancing usability in dense Wi-Fi environments like New York City. He also discussed plans for expanding to macOS and Android platforms, acknowledging the demand for broader compatibility. The main focus then shifted to their Channelizer software, populated in real time with wireless activity as attendees joined the room. Channelizer’s new color-by-utilization feature offers improved visualizations of spectrum usage, replacing the term “duty cycle” for clarity. Users can tune their threshold levels and even analyze the performance over specific time windows. The software’s historical capture and playback capabilities were also showcased, enabling users to review past spectrum data alongside current activity and compare between different hardware configurations.

The presentation wrapped up with demonstrations of real-world case studies involving wireless interference from baby monitors, Sonos devices, and professional audio equipment, underscoring the importance of spectrum analysis in identifying and resolving performance issues. Visualizations enabled attendees to see how these interference sources occupied significant portions of the spectrum, often unnoticed by traditional surveys. The team also introduced their directional antenna and device finder tool, which uses amplitude-based tracking to locate high-utilization signals. Though less applicable to packet-based Wi-Fi identification, this approach proves effective in tracing persistent interference sources. The session concluded with interactive lab time, allowing attendees hands-on experience with the tools and techniques discussed.