So it was the Wireless LAN Professionals Conference in Arizona this week, and if you search for #WLPC on Twitter you can see that the delegates had a blast. We kept our eyes open for any Ekahau news and we unearthed a few new pieces of information about the much awaited version 9.0. Originally scheduled for this month, Ekahau decided they need some extra time to work on the major update, and we now expect a release in the next few months.
The community has influenced the development
One of the things that makes Ekahau so great is that they actively seek feedback from the community, and use that to shape the development of the software. Version 9.0 will be no different, and Ekahau took the opportunity to canvas the opinions of the Ekahau Masters in attendance at WLPC.
A huge thx to #EkahauMasters for allowing us to pick your brains last night. A lot of stuff in @Ekahau versions 8.7 and 9.0 came from you. pic.twitter.com/O0OBn4rWAA
— Jussi Kiviniemi (@JussiKiviniemi) February 23, 2017
Expect some changes to the UI
It looks like Ekahau aren’t just content with adding new features, they have also been working on the user interface. We don’t know exactly what the finished UI will look like but it seems they are making efforts to improve both visuals and usability.
Ekahau users! We are considering re-grouping the icons to free up space & improve the left-to-right flow.
— Jussi Kiviniemi (@JussiKiviniemi) February 21, 2017
Thoughts?
cc @ekamikko pic.twitter.com/P1hcjEikYV
Here's some Ekahau contribution to @blakekrone 's excellent "RF art" presentation at #WLPC :
— Jussi Kiviniemi (@JussiKiviniemi) February 23, 2017
New, prettier heatmaps will be in version 9. pic.twitter.com/KbfTEtQwst
All new planner
We already knew that Ekahau was massively overhauling their planner module to cater for delineating high-capacity areas, but it’s good to get confirmation that version 9.0 will have much more control.
Ekahau version 9.0 auto-planner & channel planner will allow more control over which channels to use pic.twitter.com/iOayaIWZVA
— Jussi Kiviniemi (@JussiKiviniemi) February 23, 2017