Breaking it down simply — in an industry often dominated by established giants, Lumio is making a loud statement for 2026 by releasing the Vision 9 (2026), a follow-up to its premium-tier Smart TV from last year, priced under Rs 80,000. Right before the launch, we sat down with Kailash Sankaranarayanan, Co-Founder & COO, Circuit House Technologies, to understand the strategies The company is using to deliver a premium home entertainment experience, how it’s scaling its service network, and its innovative, discovery-first approach to TV software.

Q. Bringing a 65-inch Mini LED to the sub-Rs 80K price bracket is a bold move that disrupts the current market. How is Lumio managing to keep costs this competitive? Can you share details on the number of local dimming zones and peak brightness we can expect? Also, what strategic decisions were made to ensure you offer premium specifications without making the TV expensive?

We at Lumio like to craft products that spark joy. In our first year, our TV was loved by all of our customers. We did, That said, receive some feedback, and we believe in building based on those insights. We have built our most complete TV yet, shaped by real feedback and designed to solve our customers’ key pain points. We are still India’s Fastest TV, now packed with more features than ever. We have created India’s most complete TV, not only the fastest in the country but also featuring a premium-tier display with industry-leading colour properties of up to 82% Rec.2020. This is paired with a premium-tier Hexa-Driver sound system, featuring Dual Subwoofers, Dual Full-Range speakers, and Dual Tweeters. To ensure precision, we’ve integrated 128 dimming zones for deep blacks without any blooming. We have also introduced an all-new Enhanced VA panel with a 7000:1 native contrast ratio (1,000,000:1 Dynamic) and virtually no off-axis colour shift. Reaching up to 800 nits of peak brightness, our new TVs are built to reflect the everyday data of today’s content creators. There is zero compromise in terms of performance, picture or sound. We have built our most complete TV yet, shaped by real feedback and designed to solve our customers’ key pain points.

Of course, we are not immune to rising costs across components and the increase in the dollar-rupee value. We always try to build the most complete product with the best user experience across speed, display and sound. We have made our most balanced product yet, which we are confident is going to be one of the best TVs of 2026.

Q. You are offering two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports out of three. A common pain point for gamers is when one of those high-bandwidth ports doubles as the eARC port for soundbars, leaving only one port for a high-end console or PC. What was the challenge in giving all 3 ports full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1?

We do offer HDMI 2.1 across all three ports, but HDMI 2 and HDMI 3 are FRL lanes with a bandwidth of 48Gbps, one of which also doubles as an eARC port. That said, HDMI 1 is a TMDS lane that supports 4K 10-bit 60Hz. Q. You also shed light on some AI features you are working on. Can you share details of some of those features? How are these features different from the ones that are currently being marketed by the competition?

At our heart, we are reimagining how people interact with TVs and how they discover and consume content. We’re simplifying communication by enabling chat interfaces via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram, finally eliminating the frustration of typing with a remote control. By building a dynamic UI that adapts to your specific queries, we’ve enabled AI-powered conversational search. You can ask for “movies where the villain wins,” and receive the most relevant results across movies, shows, sports, music, and even general trivia. We’re simplifying communication by enabling chat interfaces via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram.

Today, discovery happens on social media. You find your next favourite show while scrolling through Reels or Shorts during a break. That said, there has never been a bridge between that social discovery and your TV until now. We’ve made it effortless to save content discovered on social media directly to your TV. Simply share a Reel or Short to our Instagram or WhatsApp; the video will appear on your screen, and any movies or shows mentioned will be automatically added to your watchlist.These features are currently in Beta. As with any AI-powered solution, our priority is to iterate rapidly based on everyday feedback to ensure a consistent, accurate experience. Over the coming months, we will evolve these tools into a robust discovery engine that is truly personalised and curated to your unique tastes.

Q. The new ‘swipe-to-match’ AI feature to resolve household viewing conflicts is a very fun, out-of-the-box approach to content discovery. Could you elaborate on how the AI learns these preferences? Does it require people to create separate profiles, and how does it handle completely polarised tastes?

We will begin by serving trending content, followed by a deeper move into personalisation. Based on user preferences, we will create “taste profiles” that we continue to enrich over time. Lumio positions itself as India’s “Fastest TV,” backed by Android 14 and increased storage. In the Indian market, a major consumer grievance is that Smart TVs often become sluggish after a year or two of OS and app updates. To solve this, we deliver “BOSS” performance on our Lumio Vision 9 (2026) series.This performance is driven by MediaTek’s premium-tier Pentonic 700 processor, which has been specifically tuned for Lumio to offer superior performance. This is coupled with 3GB of DDR4 RAM, a fast Wi-Fi 5 driver, and storage that is twice as fast, all working alongside Google’s software optimisations to provide India’s Fastest Smart TV experience. It has been tested and proven that our system is not only fast today but remains fast even after months of heavy usage, a claim testified to by real people within our customer base.We are also one of the few brands to have updated our entire legacy lineup to Android 14 by early April. We want to set the standard and lead this space by providing the latest security patches on both TVs and projectors at any given time. We put a tremendous amount of effort behind the scenes to make this happen with Google, and we continue to do so to ensure long-term reliability.

Q. With the TLDR app pivoting to curated movies and music, how is Lumio sourcing this content? Are you partnering with specific OTT aggregators, or is this a proprietary recommendation engine built from the ground up?

TLDR isn’t positioned as just another OTT aggregator; it is designed as a discovery-first experience. We are building a curation layer on top of existing OTT ecosystems, rather than replacing them, and we work directly with select OTT platforms. The real difference lies in our proprietary recommendation and editorial engine, combined with a growing, creator-led discovery layer.

TLDR brings together highly followed movie buffs and tastemakers who curate and showcase their personal picks. This adds a human, opinionated layer that algorithms alone simply cannot replicate. Unlike traditional aggregators or content platforms that rely heavily on algorithmic sprawl or platform bias, TLDR focuses on “high-signal, low-noise” recommendations. We blend machine intelligence, editorial judgment, and creator voices to surface content that actually matters to people in the moment.

Q. The native 144Hz at 4K and 240Hz at 1080p clearly targets the gaming demographic. That said, the hardcore console/PC gaming market in the country is still evolving. Do you see the average Indian consumer actively prioritising gaming specs when buying a primary family TV, or is this more about future-proofing the living room?

To be honest, the gaming market is still a relatively small segment of people who want the best of both gaming and entertainment in one device, but we see this category growing rapidly year over year. After our last launch, we received significant feedback to prioritise this in our next generation. While there are only a handful of games that currently support 4K @ 144Hz, we wanted to bring this to our premium-tier lineup, giving gamers yet another reason to choose Lumio and making this our most complete TV in the country.The reality is that there are very few true 4K 120Hz panels on the market, and we are now one of the few to offer one. At Lumio, our goal is to build the most balanced product possible, without compromising on any single vertical, whether it’s colour gamut, brightness, or sound. When you perform a side-by-side comparison, the difference becomes clear: other Smart TVs might claim the same refresh rate, but they often fall short in every other department.

Q. As a young brand taking on established giants, disruptive specs and pricing only solve half the puzzle; the other half is consumer trust. How is Lumio scaling its after-sales service network across India to reassure shoppers investing in a premium tier like the Vision 9?

We have over 300 service centres nationwide, covering upwards of 19,000 pin codes. To date, we have received orders from 5,600 pin codes across the country and have maintained a very high level of customer satisfaction.

We have been actively improving our service thresholds and now complete more than 80 percent of installations within 24 hours of product delivery. Since the launch of the Lumio Vision series, we have provided a 2-year comprehensive warranty, and we are proud to continue this long-term support with the Lumio Vision 9 2026 series.

Q. Premium TVs, especially Mini LEDs, are highly visual purchases where consumers want to experience the picture quality before buying. What is Lumio’s strategy regarding offline retail expansion in the country to support the launch of the Vision 9 (2026)?We received this feedback from many of our folks and decided to take a unique approach. We collaborated with Urban Ladder to feature both our Vision 7 and Vision 9 series for live demos in their stores. We believe this provides the closest possible experience to seeing how a TV looks and feels in a real home. You can walk into any store and use Netflix or YouTube Premium, both of which are pre-logged in, to ensure you have a premium, everyday experience in the most authentic environment possible. Q. Can you shed light on the Lumio 2026 portfolio of products, their pricing and availability?

Lumio is launching its premium-tier Lumio Vision 9 series, starting with the 65-inch model at just Rs 72,999, with an NEP of Rs 64,999. We have also refreshed our Lumio Vision 7 for 2026, now featuring 64GB of storage that is 2x faster. We will be launching both the 43-inch and 55-inch models at Rs 29,999 and Rs 39,999, respectively; NEP details for these will be shared in the coming days.

Please note that the NEP includes additional bank discounts and coupon offers. The sale goes live on April 24th on both Flipkart and Amazon India for the Lumio Vision 9 and Lumio Vision 7.